AMERICA 


GOD'S  MELTING  POT 


LAURA  GEROULD  CRAIG 


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AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 


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Issued  under  the  direction  of  the   Council  of  Women 
for  Home  Missions   ■ 


AMERICA, 
GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

A  PARABLE-STUDT 


BY 


/ 


LAURA  GEROULD  CRAIG 


ILLUSTRATED 


We  wait  beneath  the  furnace-blast 

The  pangs  of  transformation. 
Not  painlessly  doth  God  recast 
And  mold  anew  the  nation. 
Hot  burns  the  fire 
Where  wrongs  expire; 
Nor  spares  the  hand 
That  from  the  land 
Uproots  the  ancient  evil. 

—Whittier 


New  York  Chicago 


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Copyright,  1913,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


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i 


^ 


<^ 


TO  THE  COUNCIL  OF  WOMEN   FOR   HOME   MISSIONS, 
WHICH  SEEKS  TO  KNOW  THE   MIND  OF  THE 
DIVINE  ALCHEMIST  FOR  HIS   MELTING-POT- 
AMERICA 


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CONTENTS 

I.  The  Alchemist  and  the  Melting-Pot        .  13 

II.  The  Ingredients 21 

III.  Weighing  the  Ore 43 

IV.  Reduction  and  Transformation          .        .  57 
V.  Re-Agents 73 

VI.  Testing  the  Product 85 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

On  the  Way  to  America    ....        Frontispiece 

The  Area  of  the  Melting-Pot  (map)  .         .         .         .  i6 

The  Melting-Pot 24 

Hebrew  Types 32 

From  the  Black  Mountains 67 

An  Immigrant  Evening  School          .         .         .         •  7^ 


THE    STORY    OF    THE 
MELTING-POT 

"  Ages  after  a  fire  has  been  extinguished  what  do  we 
know  of  the  temperature  of  a  planetary  melting-pot,  the 
contents  of  which  were  stirred  and  intermingled  by  ter- 
rific volcanic  explosions  ?  What  do  we  know  of  the  pres- 
sure that  caused  a  priceless  crystal  to  separate  from  a 
solution  that  boiled  aeons  ago  in  some  huge  basin  that  is 
now  a  ruby  mine  in  Burma  or  a  diamond  field  in  South 
Africa?" 

What  indeed !  The  greatest  scientists,  thinking  "  God's 
thoughts  after  Him,"  are  but  groping  for  knowledge  of 
the  processes  that  shaped  the  "  melting-pot."  Even  if  its 
atoms  had  been  sentient  beings  what  could  they  have 
known  of  the  myriad  factors  of  the  before-the-world 
action,  what  could  they  have  dreamed  of  the  ultimate 
product  ? 

For  our  purposes  the  crucible  may  be  considered  a 
vessel  finished  and  in  use  to-day.  And  we  of  the  great, 
splendid  native  race  whom  the  white  man  is  slowly  learn- 


10     THE  STORY  OF  THE  MELTING-POT 

ing  to  respect — we  with  Plymouth  Rock  as  our  Immi- 
grant Station — we  whose  deepest  stain  is  measured  by 
the  white  man's  blood  in  our  veins — we  of  the  swarthy 
Mexicans,  the  stolid  Eskimos,  the  volatile  Italians — we 
from  the  lands  of  the  midnight  sun  and  the  domains  of 
the  Great  White  Czar — we  with  eyes  "  cut  bias  "  and  our 
neighbors  from  "  India's  coral  strand  " — we,  one  and  all, 
are  in  the  melting-pot.  As  its  contents  we  are  subjected  to 
stress  and  strain,  heat  and  pressure,  tests  and  forces,  as 
much  greater  than  those  which  formed  the  "  melting-pot  " 
as  humanity  is  superior  to  rocks  and  clods.  Fusion? 
Yes — and  only  by  terrific  heat  can  the  pure  metal  be  sep- 
arated from  the  dross.  New  combinations?  Yes — for 
the  better,  in  the  far  ultimate,  we  doubt  not.  Discomfort, 
suffering,  even  agony?  Yes — but  out  of  it  will  come  the 
perfected  product,  the  ideal  sought  by  the  Great  Alche- 
mist. And  since  it  is  His  hand  that  directs  the  tempera- 
ture and  His  eye  which  sees  that  which  shall  be,  we,  the 
crude  rough  ore,  may  wait  in  full  assurance  of  hope  the 
certain  transformation  after  the  pattern  of  the  Master. 

In  this  hope  and  with  this  faith,  the  Council  of  Women 
for  Home  Missions  presents  this  book. 


THE  ALCHEMIST  AND  THE 
MELTING-POT 


God  of  the  Melting- Pot,  praised  be  Thine  hand 
Which  fashioned  in  beauty  and  blessing  this  land — 
A  "vessel  to  honor,"  fulfilling  command. 

Redeem  her  by  righteousness,  purge  her  from  dross. 
Deep  in  her  substance  preserve  without  loss 
The  sign  of  salvation,  the  mark  of  the  cross. 

—L.  G.  C. 


THE  ALCHEMIST  AND  THE  MELTING-POT 

"  I  .^ATHER,  those  crazy  men  down  there  are  fill- 
rl  ing  the  big  pots  with  chunks  of  rock.  And 
when  I  say  *  Why  ? '  one  says,  *  To  separate 
things,'  and  another  says,  *  To  unite  things,'  and  when 
I  ask  *  Why  ?  '  again  they  say,  ^  To  make  boys  like  you 
ask  questions,'  and,  *  Go  ask  your  father.'  " 

Then  the  father,  with  the  aid  of  magnifying-glass 
and  specimens  of  ore,  told  the  wonderful  story  of  rock 
formation  and  described  the  process  of  reduction.  So 
vivid  was  the  talk  that  in  the  imagination  of  the  child 
the  atoms  became  sentient  individuals,  and  when  it  was 
finished  he  questioned  still  more  eagerly : 

"  But  suppose,  father,  suppose  some  of  those  little 
atoms  were  bad  and  wouldn't  mind  the  laws.  Sup- 
pose those  who  were  nice  and  red-hot  in  the  bottom 
of  the  pot  wanted  to  keep  all  the  warm  to  themselves, 
or  suppose  they  forgot  about  the  cold  places  and  didn't 
pass  on  the  heat  to  the  other  fellows.  Suppose  those 
bottom  bubble  fellows  wouldn't  go  chasing  up  to  the 
top  and  making  room  down  by  the  fire  for  the  cold 
fellows.  Suppose  they  just  joined  together  and  said 
they  wouldn't  let  any  big,  cold  lumps  settle  down 
among  them  to  get  melted  into  them.  Suppose  the 
fellows,  I  mean,  that  get  hot  first  wouldn't  go  rushing 

13 


14        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

around  like  little  rivers,  softening  the  hard  places  and 
warming  the  cold  ones  as  you  say  they  have  to  do. 
Then  what  would  happen  ?  " 

"  What  would  happen,  my  son  ?  Your  father's  busi- 
ness would  fail.  The  rock  that  holds  precious  metals 
in  trust  would  be  good  for  nothing.  If  naughty 
atoms  should  hug  selfishly  to  the  bottom  of  the  pot 
they  would  spoil  the  whole  plan.  I  am  very  thankful, 
my  boy,  that  the  rocks  that  make  up  the  charge  of  the 
melting-pots  in  my  refinery  are  good  fellows,  who  al- 
ways obey  the  laws  of  the  God  of  the  rocks." 

THE   PURPOSE 

As  children  of  the  great  Alchemist,  we  are  privi- 
leged to  ask  some  vital  questions.  First,  what  is  the 
why  of  it  all — "  What  is  God's  purpose  ?  "  in  this. 
His  melting-pot?  The  answer  has  been  spoken  by 
prophets,  sung  by  the  Psalmist,  and  proclaimed  by  the 
heralds  of  the  Gospel :  it  is  the  redemption  of  the  race. 
Through  Isaiah  He  declares,  "  I  will  turn  my  hand 
upon  thee  and  thoroughly  purge  away  thy  dross — Zion 
shall  be  redeemed  with  judgment  and  her  converts  with 
righteousness."  The  apostle  Paul  states  the  purpose 
of  God's  supreme  contribution  to  His  process — Christ 
the  Redeemer — to  be  "  that  we  might  be  made  the 
righteousness  of  God  in  him.'*  His  "  righteousness  " 
has  ever  been  triumphant  life  to  individuals  and  to 
nations. 

And  God's  purpose  is  for  the  entire  content  of  His 


ALCHEMIST  AND  MELTING-POT        15 

melting-pot.    He  is  not  willing  that  a  soul  in  America 
shall  escape  His  redemptive  process. 

THE   PROCESS 

"  What  is  God's  process  ?  "  As  in  the  lesser  alchemy, 
it  includes,  reduction,  transformation,  union.  Reduc- 
tion requires  both  being  submitted  and  being  submis- 
sive to  God's  great  reductive  agents, — to  Christ  as 
Saviour  and  Lord,  and  to  the  Spirit  as  His  fire. 
Transformation  advances  in  accordance  with  the  for- 
mulas of  "  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  gentleness, 
goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temperance." 

The  advancement  of  the  process  depends  not  only 
upon  the  Alchemist  but  upon  the  contents  of  the  pot. 
He  furnishes  authority,  direction  and  power  for  its 
reducing  currents,  but  the  process  waits  upon  the  atten- 
tion, obedience  and  responsibility  of  those  touched  by 
these  currents. 

THE   PRODUCT 

"  What  shall  be  the  product?  "  The  transformation 
of  baser  metals  into  gold  is  the  alchemist's  dream;  it 
is  God's  marvelous  accomplishment.  "  He  shall  sit 
as  a  refiner  and  purifier  of  silver,"  wrote  the  prophet 
Malachi.  And  the  test  of  purity,  in  lives  as  in  alchemy, 
is  clear  reflection  of  the  alchemist's  image  in  the  con- 
tents of  the  melting-pot. 

In  olden  days,  crucibles  wxre  marked  with  the 
image  of  the  cross  lest  evil  spirits  mar  the  operations 
carried  on  within.  Has  not  America,  God's  melting- 
pot,  borne  from  its  very  beginning  the  sign  of  the  cross  ? 


i6       AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

Shall  she  retain  that  imprint?  As  we  answer  these 
questions,  "  we,  the  people,"  we  foretell  the  destiny  of 
our  country. 

THE   MELTING-POT 

The  melting-pot  of  the  alchemist  is  a  vessel  of  special 
formation  and  adaptation  to  its  purpose.  It  must  be 
capable  of  withstanding  great  and  sudden  changes  of 
temperature  without  fracture  or  disintegration.  It 
must  not  be  affected  by  the  substances  it  contains,  and 
it  must  be  infusible  at  the  temperature  to  which  it  is 
exposed.  Moreover,  its  dimensions  must  be  adequate 
to  the  alchemist's  task. 

That  America  is  a  melting-pot  big  enough  for  a  fair 
experiment  in  reducing  world  races  is  made  apparent 
by  observing  that  to  fill  her  capacity  to  the  brim  we 
may  empty  the  area  measures  of  no  less  than  twenty 
prominent  lands :  China,  Japan,  Great  Britain,  France, 
Spain,  Italy,  Germany,  Holland,  Belgium,  Switzerland, 
Denmark,  Greece,  Palestine,  Austria-Hungary,  Bul- 
garia, European  Turkey,  Roumania,  Cuba,  Jamaica  and 
nearly  the  full  area  of  Portugal.  Arizona  is  larger 
than  Italy  and  New  Mexico  than  the  United  Kingdom. 
Texas  has  room  for  Austria-Hungary  and  Greece, 
and  Kansas  nearly  holds  Japan.  The  remaining  eight- 
een divisions  west  of  the  Mississippi  correspond  in 
area  with  the  eighteen  provinces  of  China  Proper. 
While  Maine  is  less  than  a  fifth  the  size  of  California, 
it  has  room  for  Holland,  Belgium  and  Switzerland. 

And  what  of  America  as  the  melting-pot  of  God? 
Is  it  a  vessel  fit  for  His  use  in  the  process  of  world 


ALCHEMIST  AND  MELTING-POT        17 

redemption?  Is  it  capable  of  withstanding  sudden 
changes  and  high  pressure  ?  Will  it  be  injured  by  the 
ingredients  introduced,  or  fuse  with  their  fusion? 
God's  melting-pot  must  meet  these  tests. 

Geographically,  the  part  of  America  with  which  we 
have  specifically  to  deal  lies  within  the  north-temperate 
zone,  the  zone  of  power.  On  whichever  great  ocean  the 
world's  commerce  may  center,  American  doors  front 
to  it,  and  she  has  the  Panama  Canal  opening  the  East 
to  her  West  and  the  West  to  her  East.  No  other  com- 
manding power  is  so  conveniently  located  to  the  great 
undeveloped  resources  of  all  lands. 

We  may  not  tarry  for  the  story  of  God's  shaping 
of  His  melting-pot.  It  is  a  story  millions  of  years  long. 
It  tells  of  dry  land  in  the  midst  of  His  seas;  of  how 
He  lifted  ocean  bottoms,  tilted  and  folded  mountain 
ranges,  and  hollowed  out  harbors  and  shut  them  in 
with  guarding  walls;  of  how  He  shaped  the  surface 
by  the  grinding  and  polishing  of  mighty  glaciers,  leav- 
ing in  their  path  myriads  of  lakes  and  watercourses; 
of  how  He  made  it  a  treasure-house  of  mineral  re- 
sources— for  "  the  gold  of  this  land  is  good,"  and  there 
is  more  gold  in  its  iron  and  coal  fields  than  in  its  gold 
and  silver  mines. 

And  God  planted  a  garden  westward  in  America 
wherein  grow  "  trees  pleasant  to  the  sight  and  good 
for  food."  The  American  flora  includes  countless 
species,  each  of  many  varieties.  It  numbers  its  kinds 
of  tropical  fruit  by  the  score,  and  its  varieties  of 
apples  by  the  hundred;  its  grapes  rival  the  grapes  of 
Eshcol;  its  southern  swamps  are  filled  with  cypress  and 


i8        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

gum  trees,  while  the  upper  regions  of  its  great  lakes 
and  much  of  the  northwest  are  still  covered  with 
primeval  forests.  And  besides  its  native  plant-life 
America  has  already  admitted  something  like  thirty 
thousand  immigrant  vegetable  creations — "  assisted 
immigration  "  resulting  in  the  mingling  of  races  by 
which  to  secure  the  best. 

American  cotton  is  the  best  grown,  and  by  far  the 
most  valuable  product  exported,  wheat  coming  second. 
America's  corn  patch  is  the  biggest  on  the  globe.  The 
land  is  sufficient  unto  itself  and  a  suppliant  of  no  other 
for  resources  vital  to  human  life  and  progress. 

As  for  its  fauna,  man's  needs  are  amply  supplied, 
while  there  are  few  ferocious  animals.  Here  are  His 
"  cattle  upon  a  thousand  hills,"  and  He  has  "  let  the 
waters  bring  forth  abundantly."  And  here  humanity 
is  at  its  physical  best.  A  temperate  climate  tempers 
the  race,  giving  the  best  foundation  for  mental  and 
spiritual  development.  There  is  enterprise,  endurance, 
efficiency,  ennoblement  in  the  very  air  of  America. 

But  God  did  not  make  America  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  stocking  coal-trains,  filling  grain  elevators  or  sup- 
plying cotton  markets.  As  a  melting-pot  He  made  it 
for  beauty  as  well  as  for  adaptation  and  for  strength. 
And  even  more  than  they  need  to  understand  the  Eng- 
lish language,  its  citizens,  whether  by  birth  or  adoption, 
need  to  understand  the  message  of  God's  love  spoken 
through  His  workmanship.  "  There  is  no  hope  for 
you,"  says  Thoreau,  "  unless  the  bit  of  sod  under  your 
feet  is  the  sweetest  of  all  the  earth."  We  add,  "  unless 
you  tread  it  as  God's  creature  in  God's  country." 


II 

THE  INGREDIENTS 


"O  Thou  holy  One  and  just, 
Thou  who  wast  the  Pilgrims'  trust, 
Thou  who  watchest  o'er  their  dust 

By  the  moaning  sea; 
By  their  conflicts,  toils  and  cares. 
By  their  perils  and  their  prayers. 
By  their  ashes,  make  their  heirs 

True  to  them  and  Thee." 

"Lift  up  thine  eyes  round  about  and  behold;  all  these  gather 
themselves  together  and  come  to  thee." 


n 

THE  INGREDIENTS 

THE  labels  on  geological  specimens  indicate  the 
information  first  desired  by  the  observer — ^the 
whence  and  the  what.  Standing  in  the  observa- 
tion gallery  at  Ellis  Island,  watching  the  charging  of 
the  melting-pot  and  noting  the  conglomerate  composi- 
tion of  the  ingredients  there  seen,  one  wishes  that  those 
specimens  were  distinctly  labeled  as  to  character  and 
the  mines  and  quarries  whence  they  had  come. 

The  botanist  enjoys  greeting  every  tree  and  shrub 
and  flower  in  the  park  by  name;  the  ornithologist  hap- 
pily recognizes  the  call  of  a  hundred  winged  friends; 
but  the  sociologist  who,  as  a  friend  to  man,  can  label 
from  forty  to  fifty  varieties  represented  in  the  popula- 
tion of  our  great  metropolis  has  chosen  the  most  fasci- 
nating and  profitable  of  special  studies. 

WHENCE  AND   WHO 

No  land  in  the  Old  World  has  failed  to  yield  the 
products  of  her  mines  of  humanity  to  charge  God's 
melting-pot.  They  came  first  from  Britain,  Ireland, 
Holland  and  Germany,  and  then,  in  lesser  degree,  from 
France,  Portugal  and  Sweden.  After  the  constitution 
of  the  republic  considerable  populations  of  west  Medi- 

21 


22        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

terranean  races  were  admitted,  the  Spanish  by  way  of 
Florida  and  the  Southwest,  the  French  through  Louisi- 
ana and  the  Northwest.  During  the  period  of  "  the 
old  immigration,"  America's  fatherlands  came  to 
embrace  all  of  northwest  Europe.  Since  1883,  while 
the  old  mines  have  been  operating,  the  bulk  of  the  in- 
flux has  been  quite  different  in  character  and  produced 
by  the  newer  fields  of  south  and  east  Europe.  Its  chief 
elements  have  been  Italian,  Hebrew  and  Slavic:  the 
Italian  largely  from  South  Italy  and  Sicily;  the  Jews 
in  order  of  quantity  from  Russia,  Austria-Hungary, 
Roumania,  Great  Britain  and  Germany;  the  Slavs  prin- 
cipally from  Austria-Hungary,  whence  also  come  the 
Magyars. 

Asia  has  sent  her  contribution  largely  from  China, 
Japan,  India  and  Turkey. 

Africa  early  permitted  vandals  to  stock  the  melting- 
pot  with  human  ores  from  the  Guinea  Coast,  Dahomey 
and  the  Sudan,  and  from  the  Bantu,  Zulu  and  Kaffir 
lands  farther  south. 

South  America,  Australia,  Mexico,  Canada  and  the 
islands  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  have  added  their  con- 
glomerate ores. 

The  prophecy  of  the  Revolutionary  patriot,  Daniel 
Dickinson, — who  heard  "  the  sound  of  the  pattering 
feet  of  coming  millions  "  and  saw  "  races  to  civilize, 
educate  and  absorb — as  America's  triumph  in  the  cause 
of  progress  and  civilization  " — has  come  to  pass. 


JHE  INGREDIENTS  23 

THE   FIRST    CENSUS 

The  first  census  act  was  passed  at  the  second  session 
of  the  first  Congress,  and  signed  by  President  Washing- 
ton on  March  i,  1790.  By  it  the  United  States  became 
the  first  country  in  the  world  to  provide  for  periodical 
enumeration  of  its  inhabitants. 

Census-taking  then  was  no  sinecure.  Transportation 
was  by  horseback,  stage  or  private  coach.  The  roads — 
when  there  were  any — were  poor,  and  bridges  were  al- 
most unknown.  At  best  speed  it  took  eight  days  to 
go  from  New  York  to  Washington.  The  existing 
fear  of  increased  taxation  and  of  incurring  Divine  dis- 
pleasure by  enrollment  did  not  lighten  the  task.  The 
enumeration  required  nine  months,  and  showed  a  popu- 
lation of  3,920,214.  New  York  City  numbered  33,131 
inhabitants.  The  first  census  report  is  a  rare  volume 
of  but  fifty-six  pages.  If  one  can  trace  his  ancestry 
to  the  bedrock  of  these  records  he  may  safely  assume 
to  belong  to  the  first  families  of  America.  Its  only 
concern  regarding  origin  is  expressed  in  the  terms 
white  and  colored. 

The  gross  area  of  the  country  was  but  twenty-seven 
per  cent,  of  the  area  of  continental  United  States  (ex- 
cluding Alaska)  to-day,  and  but  a  little  over  one-quar- 
ter of  this  area  was  settled. 

THE  LAST   CENSUS 

The  last  census,  that  of  19 10,  is  the  thirteenth  in  num- 
ber.   The  enumerations  were  made  within  two  weeks  in 


24       AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

the  city  and  a  month  in  the  country.  The  full  report — 
making  a  dozen  or  more  large  quarto  volumes — gives 
the  entire  population  as  about  101,100,000,  that  of  con- 
tinental United  States  being  91,973,266.  The  sparsest 
settlement,  seven-tenths  of  a  man  to  the  square  mile, 
was  found  in  Nevada ;  the  densest,  in  Rhode  Island, 
508.6.  Greater  New  York  returned  nearly  two-thirds 
of  the  national  enumeration  of  the  first  census,  and 
one  hundred  and  twenty  cities  of  19 10  would  class  with 
our  great  metropolis  in  1790.  The  dimensions  of  the 
melting-pot  have  long  since  expanded  and  supplemen- 
tary vessels  have  come  into  use,  Alaska  being  the 
largest.  The  racial  classification  has  increased  to 
forty-seven  nationalities.  The  census  sheets  asked 
thirty-two  questions  concerning  each  individual. 

It  is  evident  that  the  melting-pot  has  not  nearly 
reached  its  capacity :  to  make  the  whole  land  as  populous 
as  Rhode  Island  would  take  over  nine-tenths  of  the 
population  of  the  world;  Texas  alone  would  require  the 
present  population  of  the  United  States  and  over  forty- 
five  per  cent.  more. 

COMPOSITE  AMERICANS 

If  Israel  Zangwill  is  correct  in  saying,  "  The  real 
American  has  not  yet  arrived.  He  is  only  in  the 
crucible,"  it  is  interesting  to  note  what  racial  elements 
God  is  using  to  produce  him,  and  in  what  relative  pro- 
portions they  appear.  Census  returns  show  that  the 
elements  are  in  widely  differing  volumes.  The  com- 
posite looks  decidedly  white,  though  it  is  ii.i  per  cent. 


THE  MELTIXG-POT. 


Each  of  the  fifty  triangles  represents  one  per  cent,  of  the  population 
of  the  United  States.  The  triangles  below  the  heavy  black  line  are  the 
native-born,  the  shaded  ones  representing  the  Negro,  and  the  dark  spot 
the  Indian.  These  constitute  64  per  cent  of  the  entire  population,  the 
Indian  being  3   per  cent. 

The  triangles  above  the  heavy  black  line  (35  per  cent  in  round  numbers) 
are  "foreign  white  stock,"  the  portion  above  the  dotted  line  being  foreign- 
born,  those  below,  native-born  of  foreig^n  parents.  The  triangles  marked 
J4    stands  for  those  having  one  foreign  parent. 

The  triangles  in  small  diagonal  checks  represent  immigration  from  Italy, 

2  per  cent;   vertical   lines,   England,   2j^   per   cent;    small   squares,   Canada, 

3  per  cent;  broken  horizontal  lines,  Russia  and  Finland,  3  per  cent; 
horizontal  lines,  Ireland,  5  per  cent;  dotted  triangles,  Germany,  9  per 
cent.  These  six  nationalities  form  three-fourths  of  the  foreign  white 
stock. 


LIBRARY 

^wtRSiTYoHumo.s 


THE  INGREDIENTS  25 

colored,  10.6  per  cent,  being  Negro  and  the  rest  three 
parts  Indian  to  one  each  of  Japanese  and  Chinese.  This 
is  8.9  per  cent,  whiter  than  it  was  in  1790.  Of  the  88.9 
per  cent,  white,  53.8  per  cent,  are  native-born  Amer- 
icans; 20.6  per  cent.  Americans  of  foreign  parentage; 
14.5  per  cent,  are  foreigners.  But  the  53.8  per  cent, 
classified  as  real  American  is  itself  a  composite,  for  we 
are  confronted  by  various  complications  of  American 
making.  The  bulk  of  the  British,  Irish,  German  and 
Scandinavian  elements  have  been  long  in  the  melting- 
pot,  and  have  given  material  help  in  the  fusing  of  later 
arrivals.  The  growing  impact  of  the  more  alien  ingre- 
dients gives  cause  for  question  whether  the  contents  of 
the  melting-pot  are  in  danger  of  being  cooled  to  a  de- 
gree that  will  stop  the  reducing  process. 

DISTRIBUTION 

The  disposition  of  ingredients  within  the  melting- 
pot  is  alike  important  to  the  welfare  of  those  coming 
in  and  those  already  here.  The  northeast  portion,  above 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line  and  the  Ohio  River,  and  east 
of  the  Mississippi,  held,  in  191 1,  47.9  per  cent,  of  the 
entire  population  and  80  per  cent,  of  the  entire  immi- 
grant population.  The  Atlantic  portion  of  it  contains 
the  bulk  of  the  Irish;  three- fourths  of  the  Italians 
are  in  the  four  states  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Penn- 
sylvania and  Massachusetts.  The  Poles  choose  Penn- 
sylvania, New  York,  New  Jersey  and  Delaware;  the 
Jews,  New  York,  Pennsylvania  and  Massachusetts. 
Welsh  and  English  miners  naturally  settle  in  Pennsyl- 


26        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

vania.  In  nearly  all  the  manufacturing  towns  of  New 
England  the  Swedes  and  Germans  have  first  place, 
closely  pressed  by  the  Italians  and  Poles.  New  England 
mills  receive  also  a  great  influx  of  French  Canadians. 

In  spite  of  the  contract  labor  laws  the  Slovak  is 
billed  to  an  agent  in  New  York  and  taken  to  mines, 
mills  and  coke  ovens  in  Pennsylvania  and  to  lime- 
stone quarries  along  the  lakes.  The  great  steel  mills 
of  Cleveland  have  drawn  Magyars  by  the  tens  of  thou- 
sands. Chicago's  Bohemia  was  established  in  1848; 
Cleveland's  in  1869.  Among  her  foreign  quarters 
Chicago  even  has  her  New  Greece,  fortunately  close 
by  Hull  House  with  its  Americanizing  activities. 

Not  only  the  cities  but  the  farming  lands  of  the 
western  part  of  this  populous  section  of  the  United 
States  hold  large  numbers  of  Bohemians,  Poles,  Ger- 
mans, Scandinavians,  Belgians,  Slavs  and  other  Euro- 
pean nationalities. 

The  southeast  section  of  the  land,  cut  off  by  the 
southern  border  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi  rivers,  contains  22.y  per  cent,  of  the  popu- 
lation, nearly  a  third  of  which  is  colored.  Over  two- 
thirds  of  the  entire  Negro  population  live  here.  The 
Gulf  States  until  recently  have  not  received  much  of  the 
foreign  influx,  but  urgent  efforts  are  now  being  made  to 
direct  thither  some  of  the  immigrant  streams. 

The  great  west-central  region,  between  the  Mississ- 
ippi River  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  can  claim  less  than 
a  fourth  of  the  population,  one-tenth  of  which  is 
Negro.  Eighty-eight  per  cent,  of  its  Negroes  live  in 
its  four  southern  states:  Arkansas,  Louisiana,  Okla- 


THE  INGREDIENTS  27 

homa  and  Texas.  Further  north  whole  counties  may  be 
found  of  immigrant  extraction,  common  in  origin  with 
those  of  the  north  central  states  east  of  the  Mississippi. 

The  eight  Rocky  Mountain  states  hold  but  2.8  per 
cent,  of  the  population,  less  than  5  per  cent,  of  which 
is  colored,  three-fifths  of  the  colored  contingent 
being  Indian. 

In  the  Pacific  coast  states,  where  the  remaining 
5  per  cent,  of  America's  population  resides,  one  in  five 
is  a  white  foreigner,  one  in  twenty-five  is  colored,  either 
Indian,  Japanese  or  Chinese.  Sixty-five  per  cent,  of 
the  Orientals  in  the  United  States  are  found  here. 

It  is  easy  to  discover  the  causes  that  have  naturally 
brought  about  the  present  unequal  distribution  of  in- 
gredients, and  the  wisdom  of  directing  the  currents 
of  immigration  from  crowded  to  sparsely  settled  re- 
gions, particularly  from  cities  to  rural  communities,  and 
of  holding  in  check,  everywhere,  both  the  entry  and 
the  segregation  of  anti- American  elements  likely  to 
encyst  themselves  within  the  national  body. 

Concerning  progress  in  distribution,  the  center  of 
population  in  the  last  decade  has  moved  westward 
thirty-nine  miles,  from  Columbus  to  Bloomington,  In- 
diana: it  still  clings  to  the  thirty-ninth  parallel  of  lati- 
tude, just  above  which,  near  the  center  of  Kansas,  the 
geographical  center  is  found.  The  eleven  states  whose 
population  has  increased  over  50  per  cent,  are  all  west 
of  the  Mississippi,  Washington  leading  with  120  per 
cent,  increase,  followed  by  Oklahoma,  1097  P^^  cent., 
and  Idaho,  10 1.3  per  cent.  Iowa,  the  only  state  to  re- 
port a  decrease,  lost  3  per  cent.     There  is  a  noticeable 


28        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

migration  of  whites  south  and  of  blacks  north.  The 
Chinese  are  moving  east,  the  Japanese  element  has  been 
decreasing  since  1909. 


PHYSICAL   CHARACTER 

What  the  ingredient  is  physically,  industrially,  so- 
cially and  educationally  is  of  vital  interest.  While  al- 
most half  of  our  total  foreign  element  in  19 10  were 
bom  in  northwest  Europe  and  considerably  familiar 
in  these  respects,  over  a  third  came  from  southern  and 
eastern  Europe,  being  nearly  as  strange  as  Orientals. 
Statistics  along  vital  and  moral  lines  may  lead  far 
astray  in  estimating  people,  for  the  law  does  not  bear 
alike  upon  all,  and  previous  as  well  as  present  environ- 
ment and  assistance  in  overcoming  physical  and  moral 
predisposition  differ  widely.  But  it  is  beyond  dispute 
that  if  not  removed  from  their  environment,  the  second 
generation  of  the  nationalities  that  congregate  in  slums 
shows  both  physical  and  moral  deterioration  as  com- 
pared with  the  first. 

INDUSTRIAL   CHARACTER 

The  industrial  significance  of  the  elements  received 
is  important.  Less  than  ten  per  cent,  of  those  coming 
in  the  last  twenty  years  have  had  as  much  as  fifty  dol- 
lars between  them  and  some  "  bread  line."  Eighty  per 
cent.,  having  no  trade,  have  had  no  employment  before 
them  save  as  unskilled  laborers.  But  other  lands  have 
paid  the  price  of  bringing  up  and  presenting  to  us  this 


THE  INGREDIENTS  29 

laboring  class  sound  in  body  and  mind,  generally  with 
considerable  initiative  energy,  and  able,  with  direction, 
to  support  themselves.  Statistics  compiled  by  the  In- 
dustrial Department  of  the  Y.M.C.A.  show  that 
immigrants  and  their  children  of  the  first  generation 
furnish  about  thirty  per  cent,  of  the  workers  in  all  our 
industries,  while  in  certain  lines  they  form  more  than 
seventy  per  cent,  of  the  laboring  force. 

Two-thirds  of  the  Jews;  nearly  two-thirds  of  the 
Scotch  and  Welsh;  one-half  of  the  English  and  Bo- 
hemians; one-third  of  the  Germans  and  Dutch  and 
one-quarter  of  the  Scandinavians  are  accounted  skilled 
workers.  The  newer  immigrants  are  at  the  other  ex- 
treme, less  than  ten  per  cent,  of  the  Slavs,  twenty  per 
cent,  of  the  North  and  six  per  cent,  of  South  Italians 
belonging  to  this  class.  But  American  skill  has  so  dif- 
ferentiated its  industrial  mechanism  that  many  men, 
women,  and  children  are  used  as  mechanically  as  the 
levers  and  cogs  in  its  machinery. 

The  industry  of  the  Slav  is  not  confined  to  mines 
and  mills;  twenty-six  states  report  Slavic  farmers, 
Bohemians  and  Poles  in  majority.  The  19 10  census 
shows  nearly  fifty- four  per  cent,  of  foreign-born  bread- 
winners engaged  in  agriculture,  the  Germans  being 
most  important  from  the  standpoint  of  numbers  and 
success.  More  than  half  the  Norwegians  are  farmers, 
the  Swedes  have  a  larger  percentage  engaged  in  manu- 
facture and  mining.  Many  Swiss  make  cheese  and 
raise  stock. 

Unhampered  by  family,  as  a  rule,  the  Italian  new- 
comer is  free  to  follow  the  migratory  life  that  railroad 


30        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

building  requires.  He  is  industrious,  thrifty  and 
prompt  ''  on  the  job."  He  is  also  a  success  in  market- 
gardening  and  small-fruit  growing.  The  Armenians, 
being  money-lenders  in  the  homeland,  become  traders 
here;  Syrians  are  most  likely  to  be  peddlers. 

Jewish  enterprise  is  individualistic  and  social :  few 
Hebrew  immigrants,  from  Russia  or  elsewhere,  have 
been  farmers.  The  largest  Jewish  settlement,  though 
launched  as  an  agricultural  enterprise,  has  resolved  it- 
self into  a  clothing  factory.  However,  the  Hebrew  has 
preferred  the  tragic  freedom  of  the  sweatshop  to  the 
system  and  restraints  of  the  factory  and  is  ambitious  to 
operate  his  own  store,  although  only  a  peddler's  pack 
and  his  stock  of  English  the  one  word — "  buy."  His 
American  forerunners  have  placed  within  his  motley 
pack  the  energizing  vision  of  a  big  Main-street  cloth- 
ing store. 

The  Mexicans  and  the  Japanese  do  a  great  part  of 
the  railroad  and  mining  work  of  the  Far  West.  The 
Mexican  is  almost  entirely  unskilled  and  regarded 
inferior  as  a  laborer.  He  is  deplorably  lacking  in 
ambition  and  thrift;  half  of  those  entering  through 
El  Paso  claim  return  transportation.  Physically  the 
Mexican  is  stronger  and  more  tractable  than  the 
Japanese  but  so  much  less  efficient  that  he  commands 
less  pay. 

The  Japanese  on  the  Pacific  coast  are  employed,  in 
greater  part,  in  agricultural  labors  that  require  hand 
work,  as  the  growing  of  berries  and  sugar  beets,  and 
in  city  trades  among  which  from  ten  to  eleven  thousand 
are  in  independent  business  for  themselves  and  from 


THE  INGREDIENTS  31 

twelve  to  fifteen  thousand  employed  as  domestic  serv- 
ants, the  latter  being  largely  students  working  half 
time  for  small  pay  with  board.  In  railroad  work,  as  sec- 
tion hands,  the  foremen  generally  prefer  the  Japanese 
to  Italians,  Greeks  or  Slavs.  In  salmon  canning  the 
Chinese  are  preferred  to  the  Japanese  as  more  careful 
and  more  faithful  to  their  contracts.  Chinese  indus- 
try has  settled  most  securely  in  laundry,  merchandising 
and  restaurant  w^ork.  Chinese  cooks  in  private 
families,  hotels  and  saloons  receive  big  wages. 

East  Indians  are  considered  most  undesirable  as 
workers:  deficient  in  both  physical  and  mental  quali- 
ties, they  are  confined  to  such  rough,  unskilled  labor  as 
lumber  camps  and  railroads  supply.  French  Canadians 
are  employed  principally  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton 
goods,  shoes,  collars  and  cuffs,  and  in  copper  mining. 
They  belong  to  the  cheap-living,  low-wage  class,  com- 
ing as  transients  to  make  money  and  return.  The 
Portuguese  work  almost  exclusively  in  cotton  mills. 
The  Cuban  and  Spanish  specialty  is  cigars  and  to- 
bacco; the  Danish,  leather  goods  and  furniture;  the 
French,  gloves  and  silk-dyeing;  the  Russian,  silk  goods 
and  clothing;  the  Irish,  electric  and  steam  railroad 
transportation  and  manufacturing  linen,  silk  and 
woolen  goods.  With  the  Irish  alone  does  female  ex- 
ceed male  immigration. 

SOCIAL   CHARACTER 

The  amalgamating  or  social  properties  of  immigrants 
are  also  of  primal  importance.    The  social  base,  largely 


32        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

English,  was  at  first  separated  in  exclusive  communi- 
ties, and  Puritan,  Quaker  and  Cavalier  differed  as 
radically  as  people  of  different  races.  The  Scotch- 
Irish  v^ere  fitted  by  their  composite  origin,  uniform 
religion,  common  heritage  of  free  and  democratic 
spirit  and  their  general  distribution  through  the 
colonies  to  serve  as  the  first  amalgam  in  developing 
everywhere  a  distinctively  American  character.  The 
Irish  have  always  helped  in  the  assimilation  of  other 
nationalities  and  contribute  wholesome  optimism,  spon- 
taneous humor  and  other  admirable  social  traits.  The 
English,  whether  coming  from  England  or  Canada, 
mingle  freely  but  cling  to  their  national  characteristics. 
The  Germans  often  establish  themselves  in  groups  but 
the  second  generation,  at  least,  becomes  thoroughly 
American.  Moreover,  the  German  will  not  develop 
a  slum  or  inhabit  one. 

The  Jew  is  a  true  cosmopolitan,  readily  taking  on 
the  language,  customs  and  even  modes  of  thought  of  the 
people  with  whom  he  makes  his  home.  But  Jewish 
assimilation  by  marriage  is  comparatively  small;  he 
mingles  but  does  not  fuse.  Italian  peasants  bring  a 
low  standard  of  living  but  readily  respond  to  environ- 
ment. The  various  Slavic  people  bring  their  Old 
World  animosities  with  them  and  their  old  scores  must 
be  taken  into  account  in  considering  their  amalgama- 
tion. With  their  seven  regular  languages  and  various 
dialects  and  their  conflicting  religious  allegiance,  it  is 
not  strange  that  they  often  establish  and  maintain 
separate  social  communities  next  door  to  each  other. 

Mexicans  show  little  progress  towards  assimilation; 


UUWtRSlTV  Of  ILUN0J8 
URBMiA 


THE  INGREDIENTS  33 

they  class  as  social  liabilities  rather  than  assets.  In  all 
cases,  inferior  place  for  woman  accompanies  inferior 
Christian  culture.  The  Slav  says,  "  A  man  of  straw 
is  worth  more  than  a  woman  of  gold."  "  Twice  in  his 
life  is  a  man  happy — once  when  he  marries  and  once 
when  he  buries  his  wife."  The  Montenegrin  says, 
"  My  wife  is  my  mule."  To  many  an  immigrant 
woman  America  means  a  vision  of  social  emancipa- 
tion, to  be  realized  partly  by  herself  and  in  a  fuller 
degree  by  her  daughters. 

Social  undesirability  is  largely  due  to  lack  of  educa- 
tional advantages.  Inability  to  speak  English  enforces 
separateness  upon  the  immigrant  and  creates  prejudice 
in  the  native.  Standards  of  living  advance  according  to 
ability  to  speak  or  to  acquire  the  language.  Yet  in 
linguistic  attainments  "  ignorant  foreigners  "  often  sur- 
pass those  who  consider  themselves  far  superior.  Said 
her  hostess  to  a  high-school  girl  who  spoke  lightly  of  the 
young  Japanese  who  was  scrubbing  a  floor,  "  Have  you 
reached  the  point  where  you  think  in  Latin?  That 
Japanese  boy  has." 

EDUCATIONAL   CHARACTER 

Teachers  of  Japanese  say  their  students  greet  each 
new  word  with  the  question,  "Has  it  origin?"  or, 
"  Has  it  root  meaning  ?  "  Sometimes  the  outcome  is 
amusing  as  when  one  said,  "  Columbus  was  a  great 
ventilator,"  the  reason  being  that  he  "  opened  the 
door  to  a  new  country."  A  Japanese  book-store  in  Los 
Angeles  carries  the  standard  works  of  all  nations. 


34        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

Prior  to  1882  our  immigration  came  from  lands  of 
universal  education.  Some  were  highly  educated.  The 
Polish  patriots  that  Congress  located  in  Illinois  in  1832 
were  men  of  letters,  officers,  leaders — in  general,  an 
intellectual  addition  to  the  melting-pot  stock.  The 
Bohemians,  whose  early  migration  followed  the  Ger- 
man suppression  of  their  patriotic  uprising  in  1848, 
were  students  and  professional  men;  the  early  Mora- 
vians were  the  most  highly  educated  and  patriotic  of 
Slavic  people.  The  illiteracy  rate  is  but  three  per  cent, 
in  their  home  province  and  school  attendance  is  com- 
pulsory. Scandinavians  are  staunch  supporters  of  pub- 
lic schools  and  well  represented  both  as  pupils  and 
professors  in  Western  colleges. 

The  "  new  immigration  "  has  been  in  greater  part 
from  lands  where  illiteracy  abounds.  The  Portuguese 
are  the  most  illiterate  at  entry,  followed  in  order  by 
the  Turkish,  Syrians,  Ruthenians,  South  Italians  and 
Albanians;  from  one-half  to  one-third  of  these  cannot 
read  and  write.  Education,  however,  has  not  extended 
to  the  interior  regions  from  whence  these  people  come. 
The  Italian  children  show  alert  and  plastic  minds  and 
Italian  men  and  women  beyond  school  age  evince  an 
interest  in  learning,  indicating  that  lack  of  education  is 
chiefly  due  to  lack  of  opportunity.  It  is  encouraging 
to  note  that  while  but  eighty-eight  per  cent,  of  the 
total  number  of  foreign-born  employees  can  read  and 
write,  ninety-eight  per  cent,  of  the  American  employees 
having  foreign  fathers  can.  Of  the  latter,  the  Mexicans 
are  lowest  in  literacy,  the  Greeks  nine  per  cent,  higher, 
the  Portuguese,  Cubans,  French  Canadians  and  Ital- 


THE  INGREDIENTS  U  I  H        35     n  !  f  i 

ians,  three  per  cent,  above  the  Greeks,  and  but  three 
per  cent,  lower  than  the  native-bom  whites. 


AMERICAS   APPEAL 

What  "  America "  has  meant  in  foreign  quarters 
that  has  made  her  the  Mecca  of  emigration,  has  also 
its  bearing  on  what  the  immigrant  means  to  America. 
To  the  best  of  the  first  immigrations  America  meant 
an  asylum  or  place  of  refuge  and  protection.  To  Pil- 
grims, Puritans,  Quakers  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  per- 
secuted saints,  "  America  meant  a  sanctuary,"  where 
they  might  find  freedom  to  worship  God.  To  Bo- 
hemians and  Germans  and  Poles  it  meant  an  asylum 
from  governmental  tyranny.  Congress  made  a  grant 
of  thirty-six  sections  near  Rock  River,  Illinois,  to  the 
political  exiles  of  the  Polish  insurrection  of  183 1. 
Political  dissatisfaction  due  to  reaction  towards  despot- 
ism following  the  German  Revolutionary  year,  1848, 
brought  both  Bohemian  and  Polish  refugees.  Georgia 
was  established  by  General  Oglethorpe  as  an  asylum  for 
prisoners  for  debt,  but  became  a  general  retreat  for  the 
persecuted  and  oppressed. 

The  Jew,  destined  to  be  scattered  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  has  been  forced  to  dispersions  that  have 
kept  him  ever  on  the  trail  of  cities  of  refuge.  The  first 
Jewish  immigration  recorded  by  American  history  was 
of  Dutch  Jews  driven  from  Brazil  by  the  Portuguese 
and  seeking  asylum  with  the  Dutch  of  New  Amsterdam. 
Next  came  Jews  expelled  from  Spain  and  Portugal 
during  the  years  of  American  discovery,  and  coming  bj 


36        AIMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

way  of  Holland,  while  the  greatest  colonial  influx  fol- 
lowed the  Napoleonic  wars. 

No  sooner  was  America  discovered  than  mercenary 
interests  were  awakened.  Where  a  few  came  for  love  o  f 
souls  to  teach  the  Indians  to  pray,  more  came  for  love 
of  money  to  prey  on  the  Indians.  The  first  colonies 
were  established  by  commercial  companies.  This  was 
true  of  Jamestown  and  New  Amsterdam,  and  Wil- 
liam Penn's  colony  was  a  big  real  estate  adventure. 
As  America  has  announced  her  vast  natural  wealth, 
she  has  made  increasing  appeal  to  outsiders  seeking 
aggrandizement  or  re-achievement  of  fortune.  In 
1849,  after  the  discovery  that  stirred  the  whole  melting- 
pot  content,  sending  the  money-mad  from  coast  to 
coast  at  such  a  rate  that  in  five  months  the  population 
of  California  was  quadrupled,  sails  were  spread  to- 
wards the  new  El  Dorado  in  the  ports  of  all  nations. 
Within  four  years  California's  gold  fields  brought  our 
first  ten  thousand  Chinese. 

To  a  large  part  of  the  immigrant  class  America  has 
meant  little  more  than  maintenance.  In  the  half- 
century  just  preceding  the  Revolutionary  period,  200,- 
000  left  the  Emerald  Isle  because  of  famine  conditions, 
and  the  majority  sought  America.  In  the  decade  of 
1840-1850  more  than  a  million  and  a  quarter  of  Irish 
emigrated  from  the  ports  of  the  United  Kingdom  to  the 
United  States — and  this  because  of  the  Irish  potato. 
J^and  used  for  potato-growing  was  found  to  support 
three  times  the  number  of  people  it  would  if  sown 
to  wheat.  The  island  teemed  with  hungry  people  sub- 
jected to  a  system  of  government  that  practically  re- 


THE  INGREDIENTS  37 

duced  them  to  a  diet  of  potatoes.  The  "  great  potato 
rot "  of  1846  which  destroyed  the  staple  food  of  the 
peasant  was,  therefore,  a  terrible  calamity.  As  an  in- 
direct result.  Old  World  governments  and  private  so- 
cieties undertook  to  make  America  an  asylum  for  their 
paupers  and  began  to  export  them  hither  on  an  ex- 
tensive scale. 

Assisted  immigration  has  also  been  an  exploit  of 
capital  seeking  cheap  labor,  the  cheapest  at  first  and 
dearest  at  last,  having  been  the  forty  thousand  African 
slaves.  To  the  industrious,  America  has  offered  em- 
ployment for  all  and  American  wages  have  been,  as 
ex-Commissioner  Watchom  has  expressed  it,  "the 
honey-pot  that  brings  the  alien  flies." 

"  The  earth  is  the  lords'  and  the  fullness  thereof," 
thought  the  Irishman  as  he  struggled  to  pay  his  land 
rents.  America  looked  to  him  like  the  Lord's  own 
country,  where  "  the  fullness  thereof  "  was  his  who 
claimed  it.  Since  Austro-Hungarian  peasants  have  re- 
ceived the  right  to  divide  their  landed  estates  and  have 
cut  them  up  until  what  was  sufficient  for  one  house- 
hold is  too  small  to  support  several,  Slovaks,  Poles 
and  Ruthenians  have  crossed  the  seas  to  find  room,  or 
to  earn  enough  to  go  back  and  buy  out  the  others.  The 
Portuguese  crowded  out  of  island  homes  have  found 
larger  opportunity  in  New  England. 

America  has  not  failed  to  be  a  fountain  of  perpetual 
illusions  and  delusions  to  the  world's  dreamers.  Amer- 
ican ideals  regarding  individual  independence  and  so- 
cial equality,  and  the  privilege  of  becoming  a  part  of 
"  we  the  people  "  who  govern  are  strong  appeals  to 


38        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

native  democracy.  Escape  from  military  service  has 
brought  many  young  men  at  considerable  risk;  a  chance 
to  begin  life  over  with  better  assistance  has  brought 
others.  To  English  prisoners  of  debt  Oglethorpe's 
asylum  was  almost  the  only  chance. 

The  sense  of  equality  is  in  itself  expansive,  and 
America  means  to  the  toiler  in  every  field  the  hope  of 
advancement  in  position  and  in  the  rewards  of  industry 
and  devotion;  regardless  of  class  distinctions.  The 
American  standard  of  free  education  has  drawn  not 
only  the  more  intelligent  but  those  who  have  had  no 
such  advantages.  Sometimes  the  children  have  been 
left  behind  while  the  father  opened  the  way;  sometimes 
the  ambitious  youth  has  been  sent  ahead  to  make  his 
own  way. 

Since  the  atrocities  of  recent  years,  the  Armenians 
have  sought  refuge  here,  while  the  oppression  of 
Asiatic  Turkey  has  driven  hither  Syrian  Christians  of 
the  Greek  Church.  The  Montenegrin,  who  has  been  the 
living  wall  resisting  the  advance  of  Islam,  and  without 
occupation  and  sustenance  in  the  measure  in  which 
peace  prevailed  in  the  Balkans,  has  immigrated  for 
maintenance.  The  reinforced  restriction  of  the  Russian 
Jews  within  the  shrinking  Pale  of  Settlement  has  sent 
them  to  America  for  both  refuge  and  room. 

The  stream  of  Italian  immigration,  the  merest  trickle 
before  1890,  and  now  become  the  Amazon  of  our  for- 
eign tributaries,  finds  its  source  in  the  whole  catalogue 
of  immigration  causes.  The  Italian  peasants'  portion 
of  cereal  food  is  but  three- fourths  as  large  as  Eng- 
land gives  her  paupers;  of  meat,  less  than  one-fifth  as 


THE  INGREDIENTS  39 

much.  American  enterprises  offer  him  work  and  pay 
him  so  well  for  it  that  he  may  hope  to  return  a  man  of 
means. 

The  other  immense  current  of  to-day,  the  Slavic,  is 
said  to  pour  this  way  because  of  opportunity.  The 
Croatian  and  Slovenian  say,  "  We  go  to  see  if  there 
is  still  justice  in  the  world."  The  Pole,  harassed  by 
the  cruel  and  repressive  measures  of  the  government 
of  St.  Petersburg,  and  the  Finn  by  the  steady  and 
merciless  pushing  of  the  Finland  Russification  policy, 
seek  peace  in  America. 

America's  welcome 

The  base  of  the  welcome  to  immigrants  in  recent 
years  has  been  largely  the  question  of  what  he  will 
be  as  a  financial  resource  to  those  who  receive  him. 
American  capitalists  with  selfish  sympathy  for  the  sub- 
jects of  European  economic  distress  have  sent  their 
messengers  all  the  w^ay  to  his  door  to  meet  him  and 
invite  him  to  come.  They  have  loaned  him  transpor- 
tation, acted  as  guides  for  his  journey  and  promised 
him  no  end  of  blissful  and  profitable  entertainment 
during  his  sojourn.  After  a  time  some  of  these  re- 
turn, wearing  American  dress  and  the  American  air 
of  independence,  to  become  the  prophets  of  America's 
welcome  to  others  who  accompany  them  when  they 
come  hither  again.  To-day's  immigrants  are  mostly 
welcomed  by  relatives  and  various  racial  organiza- 
tions have  lent  a  guiding  hand  to  those  of  kindred 
blood.     The  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund,  for  illustration, 


40       AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

was  organized  as  a  great  endowed  reception  committee 
for  eastern  European  Jews.  Some  states,  as  California 
and  Louisiana,  have  especially  invited  certain  classes, 
and  other  Western  and  Southern  states  have  urged 
the  coming  of  the  Italian  farmer. 

America  was  seeking  admission  to  China  and  so  the 
Burlingame  treaty  gave  permission  to  the  Chinese  to 
enter  this  country.  But  no  one  dreamed  that  such 
numbers  of  them  would  come  hither.  California 
finally  became  so  embarrassed  by  the  influx  that  she  be- 
sought national  relief  and  the  first  race  restriction  law 
was  enacted.  The  Supreme  Court  has  declared  the 
right  to  exclude  aliens,  or  to  revoke  entry  previously 
allowed,  at  pleasure,  to  be  necessary  to  national  inde- 
pendence. Chinese,  Japanese  and  Koreans  are  excluded 
from  naturalization  on  the  ground  that  it  is  the  Amer- 
ican policy  to  limit  the  privilege  to  white  people. 

Hindus  are  now  coming  to  the  Pacific  coast  in  every 
steamer  from  the  Orient.  Their  habits,  their  intense 
caste  feeling,  their  lack  of  home-life  and  their  cheapen- 
ing of  American  labor,  leave  little  to  be  said  in  favor 
of  their  coming  from  the  social  or  the  civic  point  of 
view.  But  the  East  Indian  is  of  the  Aryan  race,  and 
against  people  of  our  own  race  no  general  restrictive 
laws  have  been  made. 

"  I  do  not  think  any  immigrant  who  will  lower  the 
standard  of  life  among  the  people  should  be  admitted," 
says  one  of  our  prominent  statesmen.  Yet  Christian 
America  needs  the  immigrants  who  need  lifting;  and 
many  who,  left  to  themselves,  would  lower  our 
standards,  want  to  be  lifted. 


Ill 

WEIGHING  THE  ORE 


God's  balance,  watched  by  angels,  is  hung  across  the  skies. 
Shall  justice,  truth  and  freedom  turn  the  poised  and  trembling 

scale. 
Or  shall  the  evil  triumph  and  robber  wrong  prevail? 

—Whittier 


iir 

WEIGHING  THE  ORE 

THE  balances  of  God  weigh  only  character. 
Character  is  that  which  the  ingredient  really  is 
and  which  God  only  can  weigh  with  absolute 
justice.  In  the  ultimate  analysis  the  success  or  failure 
of  the  reductions  now  being  made  in  America,  God's 
melting-pot,  depends  on  character;  and  character  de- 
pends on  relationship  to  God. 

god's  intent 

It  w^as  auspicious  that  the  first  great  chargings  of 
this  melting-pot  were  not  only  Teutonic  in  race,  but 
that  they  were  Protestant  in  religion.  Divine  Provi- 
dence seems  to  have  hid  the  melting-pot  from  the  sight 
of  the  Old  World  until  the  fullness  of  time  when  it 
was  needed  for  God's  purpose.  Had  America  been 
discovered  even  one  century  earlier,  its  Christianity 
would  have  been  that  of  the  European  church  in  the 
deepest  darkness  of  the  night  that  preceded  the  dawn 
of  the  Reformation.  May  we  not  recognize  in  the 
centuries  of  successive  failures  of  Spanish  civiliza- 
tion and  Christianity  to  get  lodgment  in  the  South  and 
West,  and  the  almost  dramatic  failure  of  the  French 
occupation  in  both  North  and  South,  God's  intent  that 

43 


44        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

the  New  World  should  not  become  the  domain  of  the 
Old  World  monarchies  and  hierarchies? 


THE   pilgrim's   CALL 

The  real  founders  of  America  were  people  of  God 
seeking  and  acknowledging  His  leadership.  Straugh- 
ton  of  the  Massachusetts  colony  declared  that  "  God 
sifted  a  whole  nation  that  he  might  send  choice  seed- 
grain  over  into  this  wilderness."  The  Pilgrim  Fathers, 
kneeling  upon  the  quay  at  Delft  Haven  to  receive  the 
parting  benediction  of  their  pastor,  "  knew  they  were 
pilgrims,  and  lifted  up  their  eyes  to  the  heavens,  their 
dearest  countrie,  and  quieted  their  spirits."  They  re- 
garded their  migration  as  providential  and  predeter- 
mined, and  attributed  the  existence  of  their  settlements 
to  the  protecting  hand  of  Him  who  went  before  Israel 
with  cloud  and  pillar  of  fire.  The  history  of  the  infant 
colonies  that  endured  indicates  that  they  had  "  in 
heaven  their  angels  always  beholding  the  face  of  the 
Father." 

PHYSICAL  PROVIDENCES 

And  did  not  forbidding  angels  with  the  drawn  swords 
of  rough  seas,  rigorous  climate,  hardship,  toil,  disaster 
turn  back  the  unfit  from  this  melting-pot  so  that 
Columbus  did  not  plant  the  Roman  cross  on  the  New 
England  coast  ?  Maryland  was  unsainted  at  her  chris- 
tening; adventurous  seekers  did  not  discover  our  gold; 
"  extreme  extremes  "  made  the  attempt  at  commercial 
colonizing  so  futile  and  trading  voyages  so  disastrous 


WEIGHING  THE  ORE  45 

as  to  lead  to  the  belief  that  Indian  conjurors  had  laid 
a  spell  on  the  northern  coast  to  keep  white  people  away. 
A  revenue-seeking  government  did  not  find  revenue- 
seeking  colonists  enduring — but  she  did  find  that 
colonists  with  rugged  hills  and  niggardly  soil  under- 
foot and  harsh  climate  and  gloomy  forests  sur- 
rounding, but  with  God  overhead,  could  build  thrifty 
towns  unaided,  and  erect  enduring  commonwealths, 
planting  therein  the  best  institutions  of  their  mother- 
country  and  improving  upon  them.  And  she  found, 
too,  that  they  could  not  be  made  subjects  of  oppression. 
They  had  crossed  unknown  seas,  experiencing  untold 
sufferings,  to  gain  "  freedom  to  worship  God." 

INTELLECTUAL   PROVIDENCES 

William  Pitt,  speaking  on  a  motion  to  remove  the 
British  troops  from  Boston,  said  of  the  American  situa- 
tion, "  It  is  the  alliance  of  God  and  nature — immutable, 
eternal,  fixed  as  the  firmament  of  heaven.  Look  at 
the  papers  transmitted  us  from  America — for  solidity 
and  reasoning,  force  of  sagacity  and  wisdom  of  con- 
clusion, no  nation  or  body  of  man  can  stand  in  prefer- 
ence to  the  general  Congress  at  Philadelphia." 

Nothing  less  than  "  alliance  with  God  "  could  have 
given  to  America  and  to  the  world  such  colossal  men 
as  then  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder  "  with  firm  reliance 
on  the  protection  of  Divine  Providence,  pledging  to 
each  other  our  sacred  honor  for  the  support  of  this 
declaration." 

Jhe  great  papers  and  orations  supporting  early  na- 


46        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

tional  documents  were  also  distinctly  religious.  The 
sovereignty  of  God  as  the  creator  of  human  rights  and 
the  *'  Governor  of  the  world  "  was  acknowledged  and 
made  authority  for  the  sovereignty  of  the  people.  The 
session  of  the  Congress  that  framed  the  Constitution 
was  opened  with  prayer  at  the  suggestion  of  Benjamin 
Franklin,  who  said  regarding  the  prospect  of  the  na- 
tion that  he  had  "  no  hope  except  from  heaven." 

But  the  document  of  all  documents  most  powerful 
in  shaping  the  movements  of  this  period  was  that  upon 
which  rested  the  hand  of  the  first  President  when  he 
took  the  oath  of  office — the  open  Bible.  "  In  God  we 
trust "  was  not  an  idle  motto  to  our  fathers  nor  mis- 
placed upon  the  coinage  of  a  realm  established  in  that 
trust. 

RELIGIOUS   AFFILIATIONS 

Weight  as  to  religious  character  is  generally  read 
from  the  rather  uncertain  scale-beam  of  church  affilia- 
tion. The  reading  shows  that  those  coming  from  Eng- 
lish and  Teutonic  lands  are  still,  as  at  first,  mainly 
Protestant.  America's  pioneer  Protestant  churches,  in 
order  of  appearance,  were  Episcopal,  Dutch  Reformed, 
Congregational,  Friends,  Baptist,  Presbyterian,  Meth- 
odist; three  almost  exclusively  German  branches  were 
well  in  evidence,  German  Reformed,  Lutheran  and 
Moravian.  To  these  many  have  been  added  both  of 
foreign  and  of  native  birth,  the  last  religious  census 
listing  1 86  denominations. 

Early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  when  Frederick  of 
Austria  was  giving  Protestants  their  choice  between 


WEIGHING  THE  ORE  47 

going  to  the  gallows  and  going  into  exile,  Bohemian 
Pilgrim  fathers  sought  refuge  in  America.  When 
Louis  XIV  overran  the  Palatinate  thousands  of  Ger- 
mans fled  to  England  to  be  directed  to  their  haven.  In 
one  year  four  thousand  of  them,  the  largest  single  emi- 
gration of  colonial  times,  found  their  way  to  Penn's 
Woods,  and  we  know  their  descendants  as  Pennsyl- 
vania Dutch.  During  1718  over  four  thousand  Scotch- 
Irish  Presbyterians  sought  America  as  an  asylum  from 
both  civil  and  religious  persecution,  settling  in  New 
England,  western  Pennsylvania  and  the  foothills  of  Vir- 
ginia and  Carolina,  and  gradually  pushing  over  the 
Alleghanies  into  Ohio,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  In 
1836  Count  von  Zinzendorf  transferred  to  Georgia  a 
considerable  body  of  Moravian  Brethren  from  Herrn- 
hut,  "  God's  House,"  in  Saxony. 

Scandinavian  immigrants  are  confessedly  adherents 
to  some  Protestant  church  in  which  they  are  generally 
ardent  workers  and  worshipers.  They  are  said  to 
"  believe  in  missions,  pray  for  missions,  give  to  mis- 
sions, and  thus  have  a  wide  horizon."  The  state  church 
of  Scandinavian  lands  is  Lutheran  and  that  of  Holland 
is  the  Dutch  Reformed,  but  many  other  branches  of 
Christianity  have  come  to  us  by  way  of  Holland.  The 
English  church  is  supposedly  Episcopalian  but  the  Eng- 
lish immigrant  is  quite  likely  to  be  of  some  other  com- 
munion. The  Scotch-Irish  are  still  in  greater  part 
Presbyterians  and  the  Irish  remain  the  typically  ardent 
devotees  of  the  Roman  hierarchy. 

Of  the  "  new  immigration,"  neither  the  race,  the 
land  of  birth,  nor  the  font  of  baptism  insures  the  re- 


48        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

ligious  belief  of  the  immigrant.  The  Austro-Hungarian 
Slav  coming  from  the  borderland  of  the  rupture  in  the 
early  church,  divides  his  adherence  between  Rome  and 
Constantinople.  Bulgarians  and  Servians,  generally 
speaking,  belong  to  the  orthodox  Greek  church;  Poles, 
Bohemians,  Croatians,  Slovenes  and  Slovaks  to  the 
Roman,  one- fourth  of  the  Slovaks  being  classed  as 
Protestants.  The  Russian  Slav  is  generally  rated  as 
Greek  Catholic,  although  a  considerable  number  of 
Russian  immigrants  are  Protestant.  The  Finns  are 
usually  Lutheran;  the  Letts,  Protestant;  the  Lithua- 
nians, Roman  Catholics.  The  Magyar  is  as  likely  to  be 
Protestant  as  Catholic,  and  when  Protestant  likely  to 
be  Calvinist,  Lutheran,  United  Greek  or  Armenian. 
Syria  is  largely  Mohammedan,  but  Syrian  immigrants 
are  of  various  ancient  Christian  sects.  The  Hebrews 
are  divided  into  three  classes — the  orthodox,  con- 
servative and  reformed. 

Italy  is  accounted  Roman  Catholic,  but  the  Romish 
church  in  America  does  not  find  the  Italian  immigrant 
a  reliable  supporter.  None  are  more  ignorant  of  the 
Bible;  comparatively  few  Romans  to-day  know  that  the 
apostle  Paul  ever  wrote  the  Roman  epistle.  Many 
Italians  bring  to  America  as  strong  a  desire  for  ec- 
clesiastical as  for  political  freedom  and  they  are  prone 
to  give  up  Christianity  altogether  if  not  looked  out  for 
by  the  Protestant  church.  Bohemians  have  shown  the 
most  marked  tendency  to  settle  down  to  old-fashioned 
infidelity.  Infidel  societies  are  maintained  and  Sunday 
school  children  are  taught  an  infidel  catechism. 

Chinese,  Japanese,  Hindus,  Persians  and  Turks  have 


WEIGHING  THE  ORE  49 

erected  their  heathen  shrines,  and  we  are  prone  to  con- 
ceive of  our  immigration  as  being  "  too  religious ''  in 
the  sense  of  worshiping  at  too  many  altars  and,  too 
often,  an  unknown  God.  It  is  the  part  of  American 
Christianity  to  "  declare  unto  them  Him  whom  they 
ignorantly  worship." 

Separation  of  church  and  state  is  new  to  most  im- 
migrants and  it  is  encouraging  to  note  how  many  of 
them  shoulder  the  new  responsibility  of  providing 
themselves  church  buildings  and  maintaining  worship. 

RELIGIOUS   FRUITAGE 

However  a  tree  may  be  catalogued,  it  must  be  judged 
finally  by  its  fruits :  not  everyone  that  saith,  "  Lord, 
Lord,"  but  "  he  that  doeth  the  will,"  weighs  well  in 
the  balances  of  God.  The  assay  of  gold  in  the  Chris- 
tian product  is  indicated  by  its  response  to  God's  proc- 
ess and  its  relation  to  the  missionary  enterprise. 

While  the  church  body  in  America  has  not  been  alto- 
gether a  perfect  representative  and  revelator  of  Christ; 
has  not  always  busied  itself  with  seeking  the  lost;  has 
not  preached  the  gospel  to  all  nations  even  within  her 
borders,  yet  such  has  been  the  high  ideal  and  holy  pur- 
pose of  the  Church.  Sometimes  the  world  outside  has 
been  justified  in  saying,  "  Physician,  heal  thyself  " : 
sometimes  the  Church  has  been  so  occupied  in  healing 
herself  that  she  has  not  taken  that  best  assistant  to  heal- 
ing— exercise  in  the  open.  The  Church  has  not  always 
been  a  unit  in  her  interpretation  of  eternal  justice,  as 
in  the  question  of  slavery :  she  has  been  slow  to  realize 


50        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

her  ability  to  overthrow  the  twin  evils,  intemperance 
and  immorahty;  still,  in  every  struggle  of  "  the  weak 
against  the  strong  "  and  '"the  right  against  the  wrong," 
she  has  lifted  up  her  voice  for  God.  Efforts  for 
American  betterment  have  prevailingly  had  church 
origin  or  have  sought  and  obtained  church  encourage- 
ment and  support.  The  vision,  the  faith  and  the  cour- 
age of  American  Protestants  have  produced  the  most 
notable  philanthropic  and  missionary  movements  of 
modern  times. 

In  weighing  the  Church  it  is  not  just  to  put  into  the 
balances  samples  of  extremely  indifferent  character 
only,  ignoring  the  weighty  specimens  such  as  officially 
equip,  with  the  very  gold  of  the  Kingdom,  not  only 
the  Church  and  her  manifold  missionary  agencies,  but 
the  thousands  of  outside  benevolent  institutions  which 
also  depend,  almost  entirely,  upon  her  for  their  officials. 
For  the  Church  to  be  oblivious  of  the  former,  is  to  lack 
wisdom  for  her  task;  for  her  to  fail  to  appreciate  the 
latter,  is  to  lack  the  hopeful  vision  necessary  to  accom- 
plish her  mission. 

If  every  Christian  could  be  possessed  of  a  sense  of 
the  Divinely  appointed  mission  that  the  commanding 
place  of  leadership  and  power  given  to  America  signi- 
fies, there  would  be  no  problem  concerning  American 
assimilation  of  immigrants.  If  the  Church  really  be- 
lieved that  the  task  of  saving  America  was  God- 
imposed,  would  she  not  fear  to  refuse  any  possible 
service  ?  And  would  not  any  service  needed  be  recog- 
nized as  possible  if  the  Church  really  believed  the  prom- 
ises of  God  ?   Too  many  churches,  too  many  Christians, 


WEIGHING  THE  ORE  51 

are  doing  nothing  that  cannot  be  accounted  for  with- 
out putting  God  into  the  reckoning. 

There  are  no  barriers  to  the  constraining  love  of 
Christ.  InabiHty  to  understand  English,  so  long  al- 
lowed to  bar  immigrants  from  the  ministry  of  the 
church,  has  become  for  the  Home  missionary  the  open 
door  to  service.  Nearly  every  Oriental  convert  on  the 
Pacific  coast  will  assert  that  his  faith  in  Christ  was 
born  in  the  English-teaching  night-school. 

Moreover,  common  speech  is  not  an  absolute  essen- 
tial to  fellowship  in  worship.  Some  Texas  Mexican 
children  who  attended  a  mission  school  urged  the  mis- 
sionary to  ''  have  church  "  which  their  parents  might 
attend.  When  she  sought  to  excuse  herself  because  un- 
able to  speak  Spanish,  a  little  girl  in  evident  relief  ex- 
claimed, "  Oh,  it  doesn't  matter  whether  they  under- 
stand, only  so  it's  church;  English  is  as  well  as  Latin !  '* 
Recognizing  the  truth  of  the  child's  reflection,  the 
teacher  conducted  an  English  service  through  which 
the  people  listened  most  reverently  if  not  understand- 
ingly. 

RELIGIOUS   PROBLEMS 

Oflicial  figures  for  19 10  show  that  two-fifths  of 
America's  total  population  report  as  church  members, 
three-fifths  of  them  being  Protestant  and  over  a 
third  Roman  Catholic.  This  awakens  inquiry  concern- 
ing irreligious  elements.  The  church  provides  a  min- 
ister to  every  550  of  the  population,  one  to  every  207 
of  the  Christian  church  membership;  yet.  Christian 
meeting-places,  which  furnish  seatings  for  about  half 


52       AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

the  population,  are  often  not  half  filled.  One  is  in- 
clined to  question  whether  the  most  dangerous  foes  of 
the  Church  may  not  be  those  of  her  own  household. 
The  indifference  existing  regarding  the  empty  pews 
shows  that  the  church  members  fail  to  realize  that  they 
are  responsible  elements  in  a  perpetual  process — that 
to  the  immigrant  and  irreligious  native  they  are  the 
epistles  of  America's  faith  in  church  ministry. 

A  young  Japanese  being  asked  where  he  attended 
church,  replied,  "  I  no  go  church !  People  no  go  church 
in  America!  America  surprise  me  much;  I  suppose 
America  all  Christian — all  go  church.  I  find  no  one 
Christian — no  one  go  church." 

The  indifference  of  Christian  parents  who  direct 
their  best  energies  to  the  physical,  intellectual  and  so- 
cial advancement  of  their  children  and  take  little  evi- 
dent concern  for  their  spiritual  development  is  a  de- 
Christianizing  element.  Susceptibility  to  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  secured  through  individual  prayer, 
Bible  study  and  meditation  upon  holy  things,  can 
alone  overcome  the  spirit  of  indifference. 

The  Jamaicans  have  a  proverb  that  too  often  fits 
the  American  Christian  home :  "  When  fowl  drink 
water,  him  lif  up  him  head  an'  say,  *  T'ank  God! 
T'ank  God ! '  but  man  drink  water  an'  no  say  not'ing." 

The  foreign  and  false  faiths  which,  in  their  contact 
with  the  true  religious  elements  of  the  melting-pot, 
take  on  something  of  their  appearance,  adopting 
methods  and  endeavors  that  make  outward  Christian 
appeal,  are  the  greater  menace  to  Christian  faith  be- 
cause what  they  really  are  is  thereby  concealed.    Some 


WEIGHING  THE  ORE  53 

forms  of  socialism  are  in  pronounced  opposition  to  God 
and  to  America. 

The  questions  of  immigration  restriction  have  re- 
ligious bearings.  Shall  America,  established  on  a  Chris- 
tian basis,  shut  her  doors  in  the  face  of  some  and  throw 
leading-ropes  across  the  seas  to  others  ?  To  do  so  were 
un-American,  un-Christian — so  say  some,  both  in 
church  and  state. 

Shall  America,  the  melting-pot  of  God,  be  profaned 
by  those  who  do  not  seek  to  know  Him  or  to  walk  after 
His  counsels,  those  who  build  up  high-places  for  the 
worship  of  their  Baalim  and  Ashtaroth?  Should  not 
the  doors  be  closed  fast  to  all  who  do  not  come  out  of 
respect  for  that  to  which  America  was  consecrated  by 
the  blood  of  our  sires?    So  question  others. 

But  shall  not  the  processes  of  God  within  His  melt- 
ing-pot be  for  the  salvation  of  the  whole  world?  Even 
so,  were  there  not  preparatory  reductions  in  other  ves- 
sels of  the  ores  with  which  this  was  charged  in  the 
beginning?  Should  there  not  be  preparation  of  that 
which  goes  in  to-day?  Would  it  not  be  better  for  God's 
far  purpose  in  the  world  that  the  heathen  come  not 
to  see  and  hear  Him  dishonored,  perhaps  to  find  Him 
unknown;  to  set  up  their  idols  here  and  have  our  own 
people  go  after  their  strange  gods  ?  Should  we  not  for- 
bid the  charging  of  the  melting-pot  faster  than  the  fires 
and  solvents  can  effect  reduction  and  transformation? 

So  question  others.    Which  are  right? 


IV 
REDUCTION  AND  TRANSFORMATION 


Prayer  and  pains  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  will  do  any- 
thing. 

— John  Eliot. 


IV 

REDUCTION  AND  TRANSFORMATION 

DURING  the  colonial  period  the  process  of 
Americanization  was  well  begun.  The  thirteen 
separate  colonies,  each  holding  to  its  own  an- 
cestral peculiarities,  having  its  own  interests,  its  own 
struggles,  its  own  problems  for  the  future,  were  being 
fused  into  a  national  character  with  common  interests, 
common  struggles,  common  problems,  and  a  dawning 
vision  of  united  independence. 

The  pioneer  patriot  was  born  and  bred  in  a  simple 
home  to  simple  living;  but  not  to  the  modern  "  simple 
life."  The  twentieth  century  housewife  might  find  her- 
self even  more  perplexed  to  carry  out  a  day's  programme 
of  a  colonial  dame,  in  w^hich  everything  was  home- 
made from  raw  materials,  than  that  dame  might  be  to 
adjust  herself  at  once  to  a  twentieth  century  equip- 
ment. If  the  day  were  a  Puritan  Sabbath  with  a 
family  of  colonial  dimensions,  there  might  be  even 
greater  appreciation  of  New  England  mothers, 

SUBJUGATION" 

"  A  barren  country  is  a  great  whet  to  the  industry  of 
a  people  ";  the  Pilgrims,  who  landed  on  New  England's 
*'  stern  and  rock-bound  coast,"  bestirred  themselves  lest 

57 


58        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

they,  too,  fall  into  the  category  of  "  all  things  which," 
as  Bradford  said,  "  stared  at  them  with  weather-beaten 
face."  But  strenuous  toil,  hardship,  difficulty,  danger 
and  disaster,  if  met  nobly  and  bravely,  are  wholesome 
discipline.  Moreover,  our  forefathers  brought  with 
them  the  desires,  tastes  and  ambitions  of  the  most 
advanced  society  of  their  time.  The  wish  to  gratify 
these  led  to  the  devising  of  substitutes  for  what  they 
could  not  obtain  or  could  not  afford,  and  the  resultant 
originality  and  resourcefulness  have  made  America  the 
land  of  inventive  genius. 

EDUCATION 

God's  purpose  for  the  country  required  men  of  brain 
as  well  as  brawn,  and  so  some  of  the  most  brilliant 
clergymen  of  England  were  its  first  pastors,  while 
graduates  of  Cambridge,  Scotch  reformers,  Irish  lib- 
erals and  French  patriots  became  its  schoolmasters. 
An  early  New  England  law  ruled  that  "  none  of  the 
Brethren  shall  suffer  so  much  barbarism  in  their  fami- 
lies as  not  to  teach  their  children  and  apprentices  so 
much  learning  as  may  enable  them  perfectly  to  read  the 
English  tongue."  A  system  of  public  education  was 
among  the  very  first  institutions  established  by  the 
Puritans.  As  early  as  1649  all  the  New  England 
colonies  save  Rhode  Island  had  compulsory  education 
laws.  Latin  schools  and  academies  soon  supplemented 
the  common  schools.  Boston  was  but  six  years  old 
when  Harvard  College  was  established  (1636)  and 
William  and  Mary  was  opened  in  1693  and  Yale  in 


REDUCTION  AND  TRANSFORMATION     59 

1700.  Nine  colleges,  worthy  the  name,  were  founded 
in  colonial  days. 

In  the  middle  colonies,  under  Dutch  dominion,  com- 
mon schools  flourished  in  New  York  supported  by 
public  aid.  But  because  fostered  by  a  non-conforming 
church  the  English  were  slow  to  perpetuate  them.  The 
famous  Penn  Charter  School,  opened  in  1698,  was  for 
fifty  years  the  only  public  school  in  Pennsylvania.  The 
Gemians  and  Moravians  maintained  good  private 
schools  in  the  larger  towns,  but,  as  in  the  states  far- 
ther south,  rural  places  had  only  such  educational  ad- 
vantages as  parents  and  tutors  could  give  in  the  homes. 

By  the  Revolutionary  era,  American  printing  presses 
were  "  divulging  disobedience  "  to  British  rule  to  the 
number  of  thirty-seven  newspapers.  The  Boston  News 
Letter y  1704,  heads  the  list. 

The  Articles  of  Confederation,  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  the  Constitution,  and  the  required 
adoption  of  these  by  states  which  brought  their  dis- 
cussion to  every  hamlet  and  home,  were  potent  factors 
in  the  making  of  Americans.  "  We  the  people,"  the 
majestic  opening  words  of  the  Constitution,  held  for 
the  humblest  citizen  a  sense  of  individual  authority,  and 
of  obligation  for  all  that  document  was  to  "  ordain 
and  establish."  Americans  to-day  may  well  peruse  the 
immortal  speeches  of  our  first  century  and  reflect  upon 
the  character  of  the  mothers  and  sisters  who  rocked 
the  cradles  of  American  freedom  and  the  atmosphere 
of  the  homes  wherein  our  first  orators  obtained  their 
high  ideals. 

First,  in  time  and  importance,  among  the  reducing 


6o       AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

and  transforming  forces  in  the  melting-pot,  has  stood 
the  Christian  church.  The  church  fathers  were  Amer- 
ica's school  fathers.  In  the  beginning  American  col- 
leges were  church  colleges.  The  first  of  these  was 
named  for  a  Christian  minister  who  gave  half  of  his 
worldly  goods  for  its  endowment,  and  his  books  for 
its  library.  The  motto  on  its  seal  is  "  Christo  et  ec- 
clesiae."  The  rules  demand  that  "  every  student  be 
plainly  instructed  and  earnestly  pressed  to  consider  that 
the  chief  end  of  his  life  is  to  know  God  and  Jesus  Christ 
— and,  therefore,  to  lay  Christ  as  the  foundation  of 
sound  learning." 

In  1757  the  Continental  Congress  passed  an  ordi- 
nance relative  to  the  opening  of  the  Northwest  Terri- 
tory which  said,  "  Religion,  morality  and  knowledge 
being  necessary  for  the  good  government  and  the  hap- 
piness of  mankind,  schools  and  the  means  of  education 
shall  forever  be  encouraged/'  Religion  came  first  with 
our  national  fathers. 

TOLERATION 

A  proper  understanding  of  the  development  of  re- 
ligious liberty  and  toleration  in  America  begins  with 
the  Protestant  Reformation  in  Europe  and  its  elimina- 
tion of  priests  and  popes  as  intermediary  between  man 
and  God.  Since  refusal  to  conform  to  the  established 
church  was  regarded  as  a  species  of  treason  against  so- 
ciety, there  was  needed  a  land  of  refuge.  Room  and 
time  for  individual  study  and  investigation  were  neces- 
sary— room  for  light,  room  to  worship  according  to 


REDUCTION  AND  TRANSFORMATION     6i 

that  light,  room  to  try  out  its  quality  with  no  one  to 
molest  or  make  afraid.  As  Holland  became  the  cradle 
that  rocked  the  first-born  sects  of  the  Reformation, 
America  became  the  nursery  wherein  they  found  room 
for  the  struggles  through  which  they  learned  to  respect 
each  other. 

A  succession  of  religious  persecutions  and  oppres- 
sions sent  hither  the  English  Puritans,  Catholics,  Quak- 
ers and  Baptists;  Scotch  and  Irish  Presbyterians; 
French  Huguenots;  Rhenish  Palatines;  German  Quak- 
ers, Dunkards,  Pietists  and  Moravians.  With  some  of 
these  aversion  due  to  a  former  relationship  of  per- 
secuted and  persecutors  had  to  be  overcome. 

Among  harmonizing  providences,  sympathy  began 
in  their  being  alike  exiles  for  freedom's  sake;  they 
counted  liberty  dear  enough  to  be  suffered  for,  and 
truth  valuable  enough  to  be  loyal  to  at  any  cost.  Provi- 
dentially, the  early  Stuart  Charters  established  them 
in  independent  and  democratic  colonies  with  the  church 
left  free  from  the  English  hierarchy.  Later,  when 
charters  were  revoked  until  all  but  Connecticut  and 
Rhode  Island  had  Royal  or  Proprietary  governments 
under  English  officers,  the  officers,  as  a  common  cause 
of  irritation,  became  a  source  of  common  sympathy. 
In  the  wars  that  beset  the  colonies,  fhey  mingled  their 
prayers  and  shared  a  common  faith  in  a  common 
Father,  out  of  which  grew  an  understanding  and  con- 
fidence that  made  for  toleration.  Harshly  intolerant 
at  first  with  Baptists  and  Quakers,  they  made  public 
confession  later  of  the  wrong  they  had  done. 

Under  Dutch  rule  New  Amsterdam,  after  the  ex- 


62        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

ample  of  the  mother  country,  allowed  full  liberty  of 
conscience  in  religion.  As  early  as  1644  Manhattan 
spoke  eighteen  different  languages  and  had  a  half- 
dozen  or  more  creeds.  In  the  center  of  the  land  flour- 
ished the  "  Holy  Experiment "  of  William  Penn,  pro- 
viding as  perfect  toleration  as  exists  to-day.  While  as 
close  to  exclusive  Massachusetts  as  might  be,  lay  Rhode 
Island,  whose  founder,  Roger  Williams,  had  expanded 
the  Puritan  demand  for  liberty  for  themselves  to  a  de- 
mand for  liberty  for  all. 

DENOMINATIONAL  LIBERTY 

The  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  witnessed 
prevailing  moral  and  spiritual  depression  followed  by 
the  first  great  awakening.  Of  this,  the  earnest,  able 
and  devout  young  pastor  of  the  church  in  Northamp- 
ton, Massachusetts,  Jonathan  Edwards,  wrote,  "  The 
town  seemed  to  be  full  of  the  presence  of  God.'*  Reach- 
ing the  Scotch  Presbyterians  in  New  Jersey  and  Penn- 
sylvania, the  wave  of  evangelism,  through  the  preaching 
of  George  Whitefield,  swept  the  coast  from  Maine  to 
Georgia,  leaving  the  existing  denominations  strength- 
ened and  enlarged,  and  adding  to  their  number.  "  The 
effect  of  this  vigorous  propagation  of  rival  sects  openly 
in  the  face  of  whatsoever  there  was  of  church  estab- 
lishment," says  Bacon  in  "  American  Christianity," 
"  settled  this  point :  that  the  law  of  American  states,  by 
whomsoever  administered,  must  sooner  or  later  be  the 
law  of  liberty  and  equality  among  the  various  com- 


REDUCTION  AND  TRANSFORMATION     63 

This  quickening  of  a  common  religious  life  and  com- 
mon destiny  had  its  influence  on  the  nation  soon  to  be 
born.  And  with  it  came  new  missionary  zeal.  Zealous 
efforts  were  made  to  Christianize  the  Indians,  and 
planters  looked  to  the  moral  education  of  their  slaves. 


THE  EFFECTS   OF   WAR 

Another  period  of  moral  and  religious  degradation 
followed  the  Revolutionary  war — "  the  lowest  low- 
water  mark  of  the  lowest  ebb-tide  of  spiritual  life  in  the 
history  of  the  American  Church."  The  good  old  days 
when  the  Puritan  church  register  was  consulted  as  the 
civil  roster  had  given  place  to  uncertain  days  when 
church  rolls  wxre  being  forgotten.  Religion  was  con- 
sidered as  for  the  clergy,  the  meeting-house,  and  for 
Sunday.  It  looked  as  if  God's  experiment  with 
America  as  His  melting-pot  might  fail. 

Among  the  causes  producing  this  alarming  state 
were  the  demoralizing  effect  of  the  war  itself  and  the 
grievous  loss  to  the  Church  by  the  sacrifices  of  war,  of 
those  young  men  who  would  have  become  its  sup- 
porters and  ministers.  The  prevailing  popular  infidelity 
of  Europe  had  infested  American  camps  through  for- 
eign officers,  and  was  tainting  the  currents  of  immigra- 
tion.   Tom  Paine  was  having  his  day. 

Separation  from  the  mother  country  required  some 
reconstruction  of  church  polity  among  American  de- 
nominations. The  Presbyterians  and  Dutch  had  previ- 
ously attained  independence  of  foreign  jurisdiction. 
Congregationalists    and    Baptists    had     independent 


64        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

church  organization.  But  Episcopalians  and  Metho- 
dists had  to  reconstruct  themselves.  It  had  not  always 
been  clear  that  one  could  be  at  once  an  Episcopalian 
and  a  patriotic  American. 

Friends  and  Moravians,  whose  convictions  forbade 
them  to  take  part  in  war,  were  in  disfavor  w^ith  both 
Tories  and  patriots.  It  took  time  to  reconstruct  and 
re-equip  the  churches. 


"building  up- 

In  the  midst  of  these  times  which  truly  "  tried  men's 
souls,"  came  a  second  great  awakening.  It  began  in 
movements  within  the  Church  so  widespread  in  loca- 
tion and  church  association  and,  yet,  so  harmonious  in 
appeal  as  to  leave  no  doubt  that  they  w^re  of  God. 
Among  these  appeals  was  a  call  to  Bible  searching, 
which  was  just  preceded  by  the  organization  of  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  which  made  it 
possible  for  even  the  poor  man  to  have  his  copy  of  the 
Word.  With  the  old  sword  of  the  Spirit,  American 
and  English  champions  of  infidelity  were  met  and 
vanquished,  and  Christian  faith  was  restored.  The 
evangelism  of  this  period  swept  the  country  to  the  west 
of  the  course  of  the  former  great  awakening.  It  added 
to  the  pioneer  churches  of  the  middle  west  the  people 
known  as  the  Disciples  of  Christ,  or  Christians. 

With  this  arousement  came  organized  reformatory, 
benevolent  and  missionary  enterprises  carried  on  by 
united  church  forces,  and  the  abolition  and  temperance 
movements  were  bom. 


REDUCTION  AND  TRANSFORMATION     65 

Immediately  preceding  the  Civil  War,  a  general  re- 
ligious impulse  fortified  the  country  to  stand  the  forth- 
coming strain.  And  as  God's  church  in  all  the  churches 
has  been  unitedly  organized  for  the  advancement  of  His 
kingdom  of  righteousness  and  justice,  it  has  assuredly 
been  "  building  up  itself  in  love." 

CONSERVATION 

Advancement  in  reduction  and  transformation  de- 
pends not  only  upon  developing  but  on  sustaining  or 
conserving  influences.  Gradually,  through  the  years, 
natural  laws  have  become  more  and  more  concerned 
with  the  problems  of  the  human.  To-day  the  patent 
remedy  is  no  longer  allowed  to  keep  secret  any  deceit- 
ful drug  it  may  contain,  and  the  per  cent,  of  alcohol 
must  appear  on  every  bottle  of  beer.  States  have 
prohibited  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  cigarettes  and 
outlawed  King  Alcohol.  There  are  almost  as  many 
sorts  of  inspectors  as  there  are  commodities  sold  on  the 
city  markets.  We  sterilize,  we  fumigate,  we  segregate, 
we  annihilate !  The  child  is  "  set  in  the  midst "  and 
the  Christian  hand  is  laid  upon  it  in  loving  protest 
against  everything  that  does  not  conserve  his  best  in- 
terests. Attention  is  focused  upon  the  betterment, 
morally  and  physically,  of  child  races,  and  of  defectives 
and  delinquents  of  all  sorts.  It  is  recognized  that  the 
slum  and  the  sweatshop  vitally  affect  the  nation.  The 
avenue  cleans  up  the  alley  to  protect  itself  as  well  as 
to  conserve  life  in  the  alley. 

Schools  are  tending  more  and  more  to  develop  and 


66        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

conserve  mechanical  skill  and  economic  force.  Patent 
and  copyright  laws  encourage  by  remunerating  creative 
genius  for  the  time  and  labor  expended.  America 
offers  to  every  boy  a  dream  of  opulence  and  recogni- 
tion. Every  public  library  and  every  oil  lamp  in  the  re- 
motest cabin  stimulates  energy  to  that  end.  Shall  the 
dream  be  conserved?  With  what  diligence  young 
Franklin  cut  wicks  and  poured  tallow  while  his  father 
poured  into  his  brain  the  wisdom  of  Solomon,  "  Seest 
thou  a  man  diligent  in  business,  he  shall  stand  before 
kings  "; — this  done,  Franklin  passed  on  the  dream  by 
proverbs  of  his  own.  Is  it  well  to  arouse  the  enthusi- 
asm of  diligence  in  honest  effort  to  earn  such  honors  as 
one  accepts?  Is  it  well  to  cultivate  the  imagination 
that  for  every  boy  there  opens  an  uphill  road  and  a 
vantage  ground  where  he  can  stand  with  America's 
nobility,  not  of  retainers — but  of  attainers?  The  pub- 
lic school  says  it  is  well;  and  the  child  has  not  pro- 
gressed far  before  it  learns : 


**  Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us 
We  can  make  our  lives  sublime.'' 


Study  of  the  development  of  our  educational  system 
proves  that  the  trust  of  framing  and  sustaining  it  was 
providentially  left  to  the  people.  The  national  idea  of 
equality  has  insured  for  every  child  its  inalienable  right 
to  an  equal  chance  to  learn.  The  public  school  aim 
has  advanced,  from  the  storing  of  the  mind  with  learn- 
ing, to  the  equipment  of  life  for  service. 

The  conservation  of  the  influences  that  have  ema- 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

URBANA 


REDUCTION  AND  TRANSFORMATION     ^y 

nated  from  the  Christian  church  is  most  important  of 
all.  These  forces  have  insisted  that  the  nation  is 
bound  to  maintain  the  moral  and  spiritual  status  under 
which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  it  was  given  a  place 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Of  late  there  has 
been  a  wholesome  looking  backward  to  discover  afresh 
the  ideas  that  are  fundamental  to  our  national  life. 

Little  foreigners  are  very  appreciative  of  America's 
early  heroes.  A  tiny  Japanese  of  California  exhibited 
an  amusing  degree  of  assimilation  of  our  historical 
heritage  when  he  accosted  a  new  white  pupil  thus: 
*'  Have  you  English  father  ? — and  English  mother  ?  " — 
"  Then,  we  beat  you,  and  your  men  were  regulars  and 
we  just  farmers." 

"God  made  the  sands  and  deserts  of  Africa:  the 
angels  made  the  rest  of  the  world."  So  the  Ethiopian 
expresses  his  crude  patriotism.  The  truer  American 
patriotism  looks  upon  America  as  the  land  in  which 
God's  people  of  every  race  are  brought  to  dwell  to- 
gether in  security  and  brotherliness,  as  fellow-citizens 
of  the  best  country  on  earth.  We  do  not  want  the 
immigrant  to  be  a  citizen  of  the  world,  glorying  in  no 
particular  flag.  He  is  not  welcome  if  he  does  not  in 
the  beginning  believe  in  America  and  in  her  govern- 
ment. The  fact  that  he  observes  his  fatherland  cele- 
brations does  not  indicate  that  he  is  not  a  patriotic 
American.  The  Pole  who  forgets  Kosciusko,  the  Ital- 
ian who  forgets  Garibaldi,  will  fail  to  realize  that  the 
Fourth  of  July  is  more  than  a  legal  holiday. 

Professor  Steiner  writes,  "  I  know  no  fatherland 
but  America;  for,  after  all,  it  matters  less  where  one 


68       AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

was  born  than  where  one's  ideals  had  their  birth,  and 
to  me  America  is  not  the  land  of  mighty  dollars  but 
the  land  of  great  ideals.  I  am  not  yet  convinced  that 
the  peril  to  these  ideals  lies  in  those  who  come  to  you 
crude  and  unfinished.  If  I  were  I  would  be  the  first  one 
to  call  out,  *  Shut  the  door ! '  and  not  the  last  one  to 
exile  myself  for  your  country's  good." 

American  patriotism  is  often  distant,  and  even  dis- 
dainful in  its  welcome  to  the  alien  who  seeks  shelter 
under  the  American  flag:  with  ballot  in  hand  he  is  to 
many  a  threatening  picture.  Yet  the  exercise  of  suf- 
frage is  in  itself  educational. 

"  For  what  did  you  vote  ?  "  The  question  was  asked 
of  some  Poles  on  election  day,  and  they  promptly  re- 
plied, "  For  two  dollars."  The  story  has  been  often 
quoted  as  evidence  of  the  danger  in  the  alien  vote.  But 
who  bought  those  votes  ?    American  traitors  ? 

Greater  patriotism  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  he 
lay  down  his  life  for  his  country.  The  blood  of  many 
nationalities  was  poured  out  on  freedom's  altar  when 
America  was  born,  and  with  every  call  to  arms  the 
foreign  element  has  given  proof  of  loyalty.  A  Bo- 
hemian rifle  company  was  the  first  to  leave  Chicago  to 
fight  for  the  Union  in  i860.  A  Japanese  Christian 
minister  in  Los  Angeles,  pointing  to  an  American  flag, 
asked  his  little  son,  "  What  would  you  do  if  there  was 
war  between  the  United  States  and  Japan?" 

"  I  should  be  very  sad,  papa,"  the  lad  replied,  "  to 
fight  against  your  people,  but  I  should  have  to  fight  for 
my  own  country." 

Fortunately,  the  time  is  passing  when  the  sacrifices 


REDUCTION  AND  TRANSFORMATION     69 

of  war  proclaim  the  patriot.  Instead  we  welcome  the 
*'  battle  of  the  ballot  "  for  the  gaining  and  maintaining 
of  moral  victories,  and  brand  as  a  traitor  the  man 
who  considers  his  private  interests  above  those  of 
country  and  community. 


V 
RE-AGENTS 


There'll  be  pots  of  real  gold  'neath  the  rainbows  that  span 

Our  fair  skies  when  we  catch  the  Christ-vision  of  man. 

Then  the  aliens,  no  longer  the  "  scum  o'  the  earth," 

But  as  brothers  to  us  of  the  haughtiest  birth. 

Shall  be  welcomed  as  pilgrims  who  follow  His  hand 

That  hath  crowned  with  the  fulness  of  blessing,  our  land. 

—L.  G.  C, 


V 
RE-AGENTS 

SUBJECT  to  the  operation  of  certain  fixed  laws 
the  alchemist  varies  at  will  the  product  from  his 
melting-pot.     It  may  be  a  globule  of  silver  or 
a  "  button  "  of  lead,  according  to  the  degree  or  kind 
of  heat  applied,  or  the  substances — the  re-agents — 
fused  with  the  ore. 

THE   CHURCH 

In  close  touch  with  the  varied  ore  brought  from  all 
lands  to  this — His  "melting  pot" — the  Great  Alchemist 
has  manifold  agencies  that — fused  with  the  ore — bear 
an  important  relation  to  the  finished  product.  Only  a 
few  of  them  can  be  considered  here.  Foremost  among 
God's  *'  re-agents  "  are  the  great  Missionary  Societies. 
God  Himself  brought  them  about — He  called  and  fitted 
the  men  and  women  whom  the  Church  has  separated 
for  their  leadership.  When  objection  was  made  in 
the  Massachusetts  Senate  to  the  incorporation  of  the 
American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Mis- 
sions because  its  purpose  was  "  to  export  religion, 
whereas  there  is  none  to  spare  from  among  ourselves," 
the  reply  was  made,  "  Religion  is  a  commodity  of  which 

73 


74        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

the  more  we  export  the  more  we  have  remaining." 
The  century  has  demonstrated  that  foreign  missions 
demand  home  missions  and  that  home  missions  cannot 
be  kept  at  home. 

The  publications  of  mission  boards  keep  the  Church 
acquainted  with  herself,  her  environment  and  her  rela- 
tion thereto,  and  furnish  her  with  feeling,  sympathy, 
appeal  and  response. 

It  is  especially  true  that  the  work  of  the  organized 
Women's  Missionary  Societies,  with  their  systematic 
giving,  their  regular  meetings  for  increase  of  mission- 
ary intelligence  and  spiritual  culture,  their  mission 
study-classes,  their  missionary  training  for  children 
and  young  people  and  their  tireless  efforts  for  the  help- 
less, have  had  immeasurable  influence  upon  the  char- 
acter of  the  Church.  Upon  them  rests  to-day  a  large 
part  of  our  faith  in  the  making  and  keeping  of  America 
a  Christian  nation. 

The  Student  Volunteer  Movement,  which  began  in 
1896,  has  contributed  a  world-brotherhood  spirit  to  the 
influence  of  education  by  enlisting  college  students  in 
mission  study  and  enrolling  volunteers  for  missionary 
service.  Its  great  quadrennial  meetings  of  missionary 
force  have  grown  hotter  and  hotter  in  spiritual 
awakening  power. 

The  Ecumenical  Conference  on  Foreign  Missions, 
held  in  New  York  City  in  1900,  was  the  first  great 
exponent  of  the  united  missionary  zeal  of  the  modern 
church.  Out  of  this,  directly  or  indirectly,  have  grown 
many  movements  of  interdenominational  union  in  mat- 
ters pertaining  to  the  Kingdom.    Among  these  are  The 


RE-AGENTS  75 

Federal  Council  of  Churches  of  Christ  in  'America, 
whose  stated  object  is  "  to  express  the  fellowship  and 
Catholic  unity  of  the  Christian  church  and  bring  the 
Christian  bodies  of  America  into  united  service  for 
Christ  and  the  world."  Through  a  special  commission, 
"  The  Church  and  Social  Service,"  it  aims  to  bring 
the  great  moral  power  of  the  Church  into  action  as  a 
creator  of  public  opinion  on  social  problems. 

The  Home  Missions  Council  is  a  self -perpetuating 
body  composed  of  the  official  leaders  of  the  church's 
great  Home  Mission  Boards,  and  organized  for  mutual 
help  and  effort. 

The  Council  of  Women  for  Home  Missions  is  the 
unifying  body  for  Women's  Home  Missionary  So- 
cieties, as  is  the  Federation  of  Women's  Boards  of 
Foreign  Missions,  for  their  sister  Foreign-Mission  so- 
cieties. The  slogan  of  the  one — "  Our  Country  God's 
Country" — ^may  well  merge  into  the  rallying-call  of 
the  other,  "  The  World  for  Christ."  The  Jubilee  wave 
of  woman's  Foreign  Mission  rallies  of  1910-11  had  its 
balancing  simultaneous  Home  Mission  campaign  of 
19 12,  under  the  united  direction  of  the  two  Home  Mis- 
sion Councils. 

The  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement,  born  Novem- 
ber 15,  1906,  in  a  prayer  service  on  the  anniversary  of 
the  "  Haystack  prayer-meeting,"  has  deepened  the  con- 
viction— ^through  a  long  series  of  conventions — ^that 
the  American  Church  must  bear  an  important  part  in 
the  effort  to  "  evangelize  the  world  in  this  generation." 

The  Men  and  Religion  Forward  Movement,  inaugu- 
rated in  191 1,  has  mightily  helped  to  make  religion 


>](>       AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

real  to  men  and  boys,  and  so  to  lift  American  masculine 
Christianity  to  a  higher  plane. 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  is  a  vigor- 
ous, indefatigable  force  for  righteousness.  In  the 
midst  of  trade  and  class  organizations,  it  serves  as  an 
inter-vocational  and  inter-common  Christian  mixer. 
"  Man  efficiency,"  "  betterment,"  "  serve  and  conserve," 
"  a  fair  chance,"  "  all-around  welfare  " — these  are 
among  its  stock  phrases.  "  Tiding  over  the  teens  "  is 
a  vital  feature  of  its  effort.  The  great  unchurched 
railroad,  army  and  navy  forces  are  responsible  to  its 
ministry.  The  sailor  boy  on  shore  makes  for  the 
Y.M.C.A.  haven  in  every  port.  The  membership  in 
its  Bible  classes  and  Prayer  League  has  more  than 
doubled  in  five  years. 

In  the  mill  villages  of  the  South  and  the  factory 
towns  of  New  England  it  is  working  for  social  and 
Christian  betterment,  while  its  thought  and  care  reach 
out  to  the  neglected  country  boy,  giving  to  him  new 
ideals  and  enlarging  hopes.  Educationally,  the  work 
of  the  Association  is  too  varied  for  enumeration  here 
and  too  valuable  for  computation  in  figures  or  words. 

The  Young  Women  s  Christian  Association,  of  like 
spirit  and  endeavor  with  her  elder  brother,  is  render- 
ing inestimable  all-around  service  to  young  women, 
shielding  them  from  dangers  in  city  and  country,  teach- 
ing and  guiding  them,  and  upholding  them  by  constrain- 
ing love.  Among  its  latest  and  most  important  de- 
partments is  one  giving  special  attention  to  immigrant 
women  and  girls. 

When  the  Salvation  Army  and  its  later  comrade,  the 


RE-AGENTS  yy 

Volunteers  of  America ,  first  came  into  contact  with 
what  seemed  refuse  ore  in  the  melting-pot,  the  Church 
regarded  it  of  small  import,  and  the  world  scoffed. 
To-day  the  Church  and  the  world  recognize  their  value 
as  spiritual  re-agents. 

The  great  Bible  Societies  have  demonstrated  beyond 
a  doubt  that  the  Word  of  God  is  still  the  "  quick  and 
powerful  "  "  sword  of  the  Spirit."  It  is  circulated  in 
thirty-seven  languages  in  the  city  and  harbor  of  New 
York,  and  every  immigrant  landing  at  Ellis  Island  may 
receive  it,  if  he  will,  "  without  money  and  without 
price." 

Bible  Training-Schools  and  Vacation  Bible  Schools 
are  carrying  the  work  of  Sunday  schools  into  the  week- 
days with  their  varied  activities. 

The  Gideons,  an  organization  of  Christian  commer- 
cial travelers,  in  a  single  year,  191 1,  placed  117,000 
Bibles  in  American  hotels. 

Among  numberless  philanthropic  and  semi-philan- 
thropic societies  which  are  more  or  less  closely  allied 
to  church  activities,  first  place  belongs  to  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union,  organized  in  1874,  "  for 
God  and  Home  and  Native  Land,"  having  as  its  object 
"  the  protection  of  the  home,  the  abolition  of  the 
liquor  traffic  and  the  triumph  of  Christ's  Golden  Rule 
in  custom  and  in  law." 

With  a  programme  of  law-enforcement  and  a  "  down 
with  the  saloon  "  policy,  the  Anti-Saloon  League  came 
into  action  in  1895. 


78        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

PHILANTHROPIC   ORGANIZATIONS 

Of  the  multiplying  of  American  organizations  for 
specific  preservative  and  conservative  tasks  there  seems 
no  end.  Faith  in  the  genius  and  destiny  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  is  kept  alive  by  the  fact  that  every  fresh 
awakening  to  the  existence  of  unrighteous,  un-Ameri- 
can conditions  crystallizes  into  some  aggressive  force 
for  their  correction.  From  disclosures  of  the  twelfth 
census  the  National  Child  Labor  Committee  had  its 
birth.  Church  and  state,  labor  and  capital,  education 
and  philanthropy,  society  and  law,  manhood  and 
womanhood,  are  represented  in  its  personnel,  and  its 
work  is  upon  broad  lines.  The  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence that  it  voices  for  children  in  mines,  factories 
and  workshops  has  aroused  the  interest  of  the  Ameri- 
can public  and  produced  practical  results. 

One  reform  calls  for  another  and  the  Society  for 
Industrial  Education  followed  the  Child  Labor  Com- 
mittee by  natural  sequence.  To  secure  the  sympathy 
of  the  home  and  factory  with  enforced  school  attend- 
ance and  factory  absence,  there  must  be  assurance  that 
the  schools  would  render  the  best  possible  economic 
assistance. 

The  Public  School,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  in  some 
places  the  name  of  Christ  is  eliminated  even  from  its 
Christmas  exercises,  has  an  inestimable  influence  on 
the  contents  of  the  melting-pot.  The  National  Educor- 
tional  Association,  with  its  home  co-operative  depart- 
ments of  "  School  Patrons,"  "  Extension  Committees," 
"Aid   Societies,"   "Mothers'   Clubs"   and   "Parent- 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  lUlNOtS 

URBANA 


RE-AGENTS  79 

Teacher  Associations,"  assures  advancement  in  the 
purpose,  province  and  power  of  public  school  service. 

Various  organizations  serve  by  gathering  and  dis- 
pensing statistics.  Statistics  are  not  dry  when  their 
units  are  living  factors  in  solving  problems  of  social 
betterment.  By  them  came  the  recognition  of  the 
misery  occasioned  by  housing,  child  labor,  factory  and 
mine  conditions.  The  American  Institute  of  Social 
Service  acts  as  a  clearing  house  for  social  information 
by  gathering  facts  bearing  on  the  solution  of  social 
problems  and  interpreting  them  in  terms  of  cause  and 
effect.  It  furnishes  information  to  colleges  and  has 
its  hundreds  of  church  clubs  studying  social  problems, 
and  its  organ,  "  The  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom." 

The  Traveler's  Aid  Society  renders  most  important 
protective  service.  The  American  Vigilance  Associa- 
tion, the  Florence  Crittenton  Missions,  and  other  simi- 
lar organizations  conserve  for  the  purposes  of  the 
Great  Alchemist  much  that  would  otherwise  be  worse 
than  waste  and  useless  ore. 

Civic  organizations  supplement  the  admirable  work 
of  government  officials  at  the  ports  of  entry  and  else- 
where. The  North  American  Civic  League  guides  the 
perplexed  newcomer  to  his  destination  in  the  great 
city,  protects  him  from  land-sharks,  provides,  directly 
or  indirectly,  schooling  and  a  varied  training  for 
American  citizenship. 

Nowhere  is  one  more  sure  of  finding  heavy,  lonely, 
needy  hearts  than  at  America's  gateways.  There  is 
virtue  there  in  the  very  touch  of  the  missionary's  hand, 
and  a  halo  in  her  smile.     But  she  does  more  than 


8o       AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

smile.  She  hunts  for  lost  children,  clothes  the  naked 
and  feeds  the  hungry.  She  carries  many  a  cup  of 
water  "  in  His  name."  She  explains  misunderstand- 
ings, writes  letters,  sends  telegrams,  looks  after  bag- 
gage, reports  hospital  cases  to  anxious  mothers,  and 
fearlessly  defends  the  helpless  from  mistreatment  or 
misjudgment. 

Civic  Clubs  and  Night  Schools  give  the  foreign-born 
a  course  in  government  while  the  home-born  study 
immigration  from  the  brotherhood-of-man  viewpoint. 

Charity  Organisations  and  Humane  Societies  have 
done  much  over  and  above  the  direct  relief  given,  to 
foster  the  sympathetic  nature  and  to  enforce  the  kindli- 
ness of  the  Golden  Rule. 

Many  potent  "  re-agents  "  cannot  even  be  named 
here  and  many  of  those  named  combine  in  themselves 
many  kinds  of  endeavor  as  distinctive  as  have  called 
independent  organizations  into  being.  The  "  do  every- 
thing policy  "  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  has  developed  no  less  than  forty  specific  de- 
partments, the  latest  being  "  Co-operation  with  Mis- 
sionary Societies."  Home  Missions  have  various  ad- 
junct departments  carried  on  largely  by  separate 
boards,  as  Church  Extension,  Benevolence,  Temper- 
ance, Publication  and  Evangelism.  Missions  proper 
has  its  fireside,  settlement,  orphanage,  home  and  hos- 
pital work;  its  day,  night,  industrial  and  mission-train- 
ing schools;  its  colleges  and  university  Bible  Chairs; 
and  every  form  of  evangelistic  work. 

Considering  the  number,  the  character  and  the  po- 
tentiality of  the  reductive  agents  now  provided,  we  are 


RE-AGENTS  8l 

disposed  to  affirm  that  they  should  accomplish  the  re- 
duction of  the  American  "  ore  "  in  this  generation,  and 
that  they  would  do  so  were  it  not  for  the  delaying 
streams  of  immigration.  From  the  last  mountain-top 
of  his  long  pilgrimage,  Dr.  A.  T.  Pierson, — ^that  great 
American  seer  of  God's  word  and  God's  world, — had 
his  glad  vision  of  swiftly  on-coming  victory  in  the  con- 
quest for  Christ.  He  deemed  that  the  Lord  had  by  suc- 
cessive movements  of  men,  women  and  children,  called 
out  His  last  reserves  and  was  so  mobilizing  and  con- 
centrating His  forces  as  to  indicate  the  approach  of  a 
decisive  hour;  it  signified  to  him  the  dawn  of  the  last 
of  the  ages. 

VISIONS 

Other  men  have  had  their  visions.  Abbe  Felix 
Klein  in  his  book,  "  America  of  To-morrow,"  predicts 
that  *'  the  church  of  Rome  may  in  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury prevail  over  all  other  confessions  combined;  it 
may  make  the  United  States,  according  to  a  dream  that 
is  no  longer  merely  visionary,  the  first  Catholic  nation 
in  the  world." 

Whether  the  church  of  Rome  comes  hither  as  a 
fugitive  or  a  conqueror,  the  fact  that  the  God  of  na- 
tions is  removing  her  candlesticks  from  lands  of 
former  occupation  indicates  not  that  He  is  giving 
America  to  her,  but  her  to  America.  Is  not  God  bring- 
ing her  to  the  open  Bible,  the  "  all  authority  "  given 
to  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  liberty  wherewith  He  made 
man  free?  Does  He  not  count  upon  the  American 
church  to  be  true  to  her  trust  of  passing  on  her  rich 


82        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

inheritance — the  well-ripened  fruit  of  the  Protestant 
Reformation? 

Perhaps,  in  God's  providence,  the  Roman  church 
has  something  to  give  as  well  as  to  get.  May  not 
America  need  her  help  in  conserving  faith  in  a  Divine 
Christ,  in  stimulating  loyalty  to  church  worship  and 
demonstrating  the  strength  of  united  organization? 

We  are  forced  to  recognize  that  the  melting-pot 
has  not  only  its  re-agents  but  its  counter-agents  which 
neutralize  and  delay  its  processes.  Such  are  the  or- 
ganized liquor  traffic,  which  is  powerful  and  obdurate, 
and  foreign  and  false  religious  cults  which  contami- 
nate and  endanger.  But  there  are  solvents  enough 
for  reduction:  the  process  only  waits  the  power  of 
spiritual  heat. 

Sometimes  the  Church — His  glorious  Church — has 
humbled  herself  before  her  opponents  and  been  apolo- 
getic when  she  should  have  been  defiant.  She  has  had 
her  day  upon  the  stand  as  the  target  of  the  doubter's 
questionings,  but  has  now  become  the  questioner,  chal- 
lenging every  "  robber  wrong  "  to  declare  what  it  has 
to  offer  in  place  of  the  Christian  consolation  and  the 
pledge  and  power  of  salvation  it  would  take  away. 
Higher  Criticism  is  getting  back  into  "  the  old  paths  " 
and  reaction  is  setting  in  against  materialism.  The 
money  god  is  being  recast  by  lifelong  worshipers  into 
angels  of  ministry. 

Who  can  fight  against  God  ? 


VI 
TESTING  THE  PRODUCT 


"That  the  trial  of  your  faith,  being  much  more  precious  than 
of  gold  that  perisheth,  though  it  be  tried  with  fire,  might  be 
found  unto  praise  and  honor  and  glory  at  the  appearing  of  Jesus 
Christ" 


VI 

TESTING  THE  PRODUCT 

THE  purity  of  gold  and  silver  products  is  tested 
by  the  "  streak "  which  they  leave  upon  the 
touchstone  and  by  comparing  that  streak  with 
that  of  samples  already  tested. 

INDUSTRIAL   DEMOCRACY 

The  character  of  the  products  of  reduction  in  Amer- 
ica, God's  melting-pot,  is  tested  by  the  impress  upon 
national  life  and  the  touchstone  of  comparison  is  the 
ideal  Christian  citizen.  The  more  foreign  the  immi- 
grant assimilated,  the  stronger  the  test  of  the  truth 
of  American  democracy.  Co-operation  is  a  basic  qual- 
ity of  democracy.  Alien  and  American  must  co- 
operate with  common  interest  and  mutual  trust  in  the 
establishment  of  ideal  social  and  economic  relation- 
ships. The  foreigner  who  comes  to  dig  our  ditches 
must  be  helped  to  make  his  way  out  of  the  ditch.  There 
must  be  recognition  of  equal  right  to  continual  oppor- 
tunity to  make  one's  self  more  capable,  and  equal  pro- 
tection by  law.  The  laborer  must  not  be  goaded  to  his 
task  by  the  thorns  of  inexorable  fate  and  haunting 
fear  of  want.  The  thistles  of  race  depreciation,  and 
the  mercenary  motive  that  makes  machines  of  men  and 

85 


86       AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

runs  them  without  oihng  unmindful  of  their  creaking, 
are  not  in  accord  with  the  ideals  of  American  democ- 
racy. Those  ideals  demand  respect  for  every  toil  and 
every  toiler  that  ministers  to  human  need;  leaving  him 
alone  without  regard  who  refuses  to  do  his  share  of 
the  world's  work.  They  demand  Robert  Browning's 
recognition  that — 

**A11  service  ranks  the  same  with  God:" 
"There  is  no  last  nor  first." 

SOCIAL  DEMOCRACY 

Race  repulsion  is  soonest  overcome  by  direct  ac- 
quaintance— "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self." America  furnishes  the  field  in  which  people  of 
different  races,  living  and  working  side  by  side,  may 
get  acquainted  and  outgrow  their  antipathies  and  grow 
into  sympathy.  When  the  brotherly-love  of  the  Golden 
Rule  prevails,  none  shall  put  the  cup  to  his  brother's 
lips,  defile  his  brother's  sister,  or  hurt  his  brother's 
child. 

"  What  shall  one  then  answer  to  the  messengers  of 
the  nation?  That  the  Lord  hath  founded  Zion  and 
the  poor  of  his  people  shall  trust  in  her."  Faith  is  a 
great  economic  force.  National  progress  requires  that 
the  coming  American  not  only  ''  hitch  his  wagon  to  the 
stars  in  the  heavens  but  to  the  stars  in  the  flag."  Be- 
coming a  citizen  should  mean  pledged  faith  to  the  mis- 
sion and  destiny  of  America,  and  fitness  and  desire  to 
further  her  mission.  To  the  poor  oppressed  peasant 
immigrant  the  idea  of  personal  responsibility  for  the 


TESTING  THE  PRODUCT  8;; 

maintenance  of  our  national  ideals  is  almost  incon- 
ceivable. It  is  national  economy  to  teach  him  at  once 
that  he  must  match  his  superior  advantages  by  being 
superior,  that  he  must  live  on  the  American  plane. 
To  this  end  he  must  be  shielded  from  hard  bargaining 
on  the  part  of  his  employer  and  protected  from  danger 
while  at  work.  To  make  it  first  possible  and  then 
obligatory  for  the  immigrant  to  live  up  to  the  national 
standards  of  civilization  is  not  only  humanitarian  but 
sound  political  and  economic  policy.  What  he  does  is 
not  a  fair  test  of  what  he  would  gladly  do  under  proper 
assistance. 

Observing  the  tubs  in  the  boys'  dormitory  of  an  in- 
dustrial mission-school  of  the  South,  I  inquired  how 
the  proverbially  "  dirty  negroes  "  took  to  the  bath. 

"  Take  to  it  ?  "  the  matron  replied;  "  just  like  ducks ! 
Our  trouble  is  to  keep  them  out;  they  lose  no  oppor- 
tunities given  and  watch  for  chances  to  steal  them." 

The  patient  who,  after  reluctantly  taking  the  medical 
missionary's  prescription — a  bath — said,  "  It  makes  me 
feel  bad !  I'd  lived  forty  years  without  one,  and  it  will 
be  forty  years  before  I  take  another,"  was  a  grown-up, 
or  rather  a  stayed-down  man.  However  dirty  and  un- 
kempt motherless  little  Mexicans  come  to  the  mission 
schools  of  the  West,  they  feel  good  when  made  clean. 
The  little  girls  pat  down  their  fresh  clean  aprons  as 
affectionately  and  proudly  as  ever  we  did  ours  and  beam 
as  brightly  out  of  freshly-washed  faces. 

Alahandra  was  to  her  teachers  a  very  hopeless  prop- 
osition; listless,  heedless  and  slovenly.  At  the  end  of 
three  months  it  took  close  watching  to  discover  any 


88       AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

improvement.  She  must  always  be  told  to  wash  on 
rising  and  before  eating  and  sleeping.  Then  someone 
at  home  was  taken  sick  and  wished  to  see  Alahandra. 
The  missionary,  fearing  the  child  might  not  return  to  a 
life  yet  unappreciated,  decided  to  leave  the  child  at 
home  only  while  she  drove  farther  on  for  a  call.  On 
returning,  she  found  her  pupil  with  sleeves  rolled  up, 
scrubbing  the  almost  unscrubable  adobe  kitchen  as  if 
life  depended  upon  its  getting  clean.  She  had  taken 
a  little  sister  to  the  nearest  irrigation  ditch  and  sub- 
jected her,  as  nearly  as  possible,  to  the  school  induc- 
tion; afterwards  combing  her  hair — on  the  outside, 
anyway.  She  remarked  to  the  missionary  while  rid- 
ing back,  "  No  wonder  our'n's  gets  sick  when  they's 
all  so  dirty."    The  teacher  took  courage. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  IMPRINT 

The  American  standards  of  living  are  best  enforced 
in  the  formative  period  of  childhood.  The  foreign 
mother  who  returned  to  the  public  school  the  child 
sent  home  to  be  made  clean  with  the  statement,  "  I 
send  my  child  to  school  to  be  learned  not  to  be 
smelled,"  was  given  a  better  comprehension  of  the 
American  idea  of  learning  and  of  the  workings  of  the 
Golden  Rule.  The  industrial  mission  school  has  the 
advantage  over  the  day-school  in  that  it  has  oppor- 
tunity not  only  to  point  out  the  way  but  to  insure  walk- 
ing in  it  until  habits  are  formed.  These,  however,  can 
only  touch  a  group  here  and  there.  What  Dr.  W.  R. 
G.  Temple  has  well  said  regarding  spiritual  culture. 


TESTING  THE  PRODUCT  89 

applies  as  well  to  the  social  uplift:  "  Oases  will  not  do. 
Special  cultivation  of  large  spiritual  tracts  will  not  do. 
It  must  be  the  whole  nation  for  Christ.  We  must 
cease  dividing  up  large  cities  into  sections  and  labeling 
them  the  Jewish  quarter,  the  Latin  quarter,  the  Bo- 
hemian quarter,  the  Chinese  quarter.  We  must  turn 
them  into  an  American  Christian  whole.  We  must  ex- 
tend our  leavening  power  among  all  classes  of  our 
population  until  the  rallying  cry  '  America  for  Christ,' 
shall  be  answered  by  the  paean,  *  America  has  become 
Christian.'  " 

Concerning  this  conquest,  the  American  pessimist 
reads  the  third  chapter  of  Second  Timothy  and  sees 
perilous  times  at  hand;  but  the  optimist  knows  the 
thirty-seventh  Psalm  and  sees  Christ  ruling  and  "  the 
meek  "  inheriting  the  land.  The  dubious  have  failed 
to  note  the  apostle's  encouraging  prophecy,  "  But  they 
shall  proceed  no  farther,  for  their  folly  shall  be  made 
manifest  unto  all." 

Present  times  are  making  manifest  the  impurities 
that  have  been  hiding  in  the  melting-pot.  The  proc- 
esses of  reduction  are  making  the  "  slag  "  more  and 
more  conspicuous,  showing  that  it  is  only  a  question 
of  time  when  it  will  be  consigned  to  the  waste  heap. 
The  good  American  in  progress  is  the  one  who  is  get- 
ting better.  The  intrinsically  best  American  is  the  one 
who  with  greatest  hold  upon  Divine  assistance  makes 
the  hardest  fight  to  attain  the  Divine  standard  of  human 
life. 

The  safety  of  our  democracy  demands  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  the  government  is  appointed  the  con- 


90       AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

server  of  life  unto  higher  life  for  all  the  people;  that 
the  Franklin  maxim,  ''  Honesty  is  the  best  policy,"  is 
established  on  the  Lincoln  basis,  "  Honesty  is  right " ; 
that  transgression  of  the  moral  law  does  not  rest  upon 
being  discovered.  It  would  have  all  who  lift  their 
eyes  to  the  hills  of  God's  country  feel  the  force  of  what 
has  been  written  in  bold  letters  upon  the  gray  moun- 
tain-side overlooking  the  village  of  Roseberg,  Oregon 
• — the  assuring,  or  warning,  w^ords,  "  God  sees  you." 

The  Bible  is  the  text-book  of  democracy.  When  the 
Jew  apprehends  Christianity  and  the  Roman  Catholic 
seeks  the  one  advocate  with  the  Father,  the  Bible  will  be 
taught  as  the  book  of  all  school-books,  whether  con- 
sidered as  literature  or  ethics.  The  annals  of  American 
missions  are  full  of  illustrations  showing  that  the  open 
Bible  of  the  Protestant  church  has  stood  its  test  as  a 
guide-book  for  human  progress. 

A  Jewess  who  had  become  a  Protestant  mission 
worker  was  asked  to  call  upon  an  unknown  woman  in 
a  distant  part  of  the  city.  The  lady,  in  fashionable 
attire  in  a  fashionable  home,  seemed  far  removed 
from  the  humble  missionary  whom  she  greeted  with  the 
words :  "  I,  also,  am  a  Hebrew.  Tell  me,  honestly  and 
secretly,  how  much  do  you  receive.  Are  you  working 
for  money  or  do  you  believe  ?  "  Satisfied  with  the 
reply  she  continued,  "  For  years  I  had  a  Gentile  serv- 
ant, the  best  girl  I  ever  had.  She  was  continually 
reading  out  of  a  book  which  she  kept  hid  in  the  china 
closet.  I  would  get  that  book  and  read  it  myself.  I 
have  never  met  anyone  before  that  I  thought  fully  be- 
lieved its  teachings.     By  chance  some  incidents  of 


TESTING  THE  PRODUCT  91 

sacrifice  in  your  life  reached  me  that  indicate  that  you 
live  by  that  book.  I  have  sought  long  for  your  address. 
Tell  me  what  you  know  about  that  book." 

A  servant  girl  who  read  and  believed  the  Book;  the 
reading  of  the  Book  herself;  a  sacrificing  life  exempli- 
fying the  teaching  of  the  Book;  these  were  links  in  the 
chain  of  evidences  that  made  a  Jewess  and  all  her 
household  Christians. 

An  American  Mexican  church  has  a  truly  Bible- 
made  deacon,  said  to  measure  fully  up  to  the  Scriptural 
requirements.  When  a  lad  he  did  chores  for  a  mis- 
sionary who,  though  soon  recalled,  left  him  two  un- 
failing sources  of  blessing — a  Bible  and  ability  to  read 
it.  Years  after  w^hen  another  missionary  came,  he 
found  a  man  manifestly  different  from  his  neighbors 
and  living  upon  a  different  plane.  The  Book  had  been 
a  general  and  spiritual  education  to  him,  and  had  made 
him  a  strict  Protestant. 

"  I  cannot  see  Jesus,  I  cannot  read  His  Book.  So  I 
can  only  listen  for  Jesus'  words  and  follow  the  sound 
of  your  footsteps."  With  this  oft-repeated  testimony 
well  may  the  missionary  addressed  "  keep  more  closely 
to  the  blood-marked  footsteps  of  his  Master."  The  In- 
dian ear  is  acute,  and  Elder  Two  Crow's  footsteps 
sound  indeed  like  his  own,  and  he  knows  that  after 
him  there  follows  a  long  trail  treading  in  Indian  file  the 
"  Jesus  road." 

The  ''  living  epistles "  of  Christianity  have  been 
powerful  even  in  their  newest  editions.  A  Chinese 
woman  was  converted,  and  her  husband,  hating  Amer- 
ica's God  because  Americans  did  not  always  deal  kindly 


92        AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

with  his  people,  was  very  angry.  "  For  two  days  I  no 
food,"  she  told  the  missionary,  "  but  Jesus  stay  in 
my  heart."  Her  life  was  so  consistent  that  it  changed 
her  husband's  idea  of  Christianity.  "  Me  velly  glad 
my  wife  Clistian,"  he  told  the  missionary.  "  She  no 
scold,  she  kind."  Seven  times  he  read  the  Bible 
through  and  then  he  said,  "  I  believe  Jesus  is  God  be- 
cause He  shows  inside  the  heart  what  only  God  can." 

A  stalwart  Pole,  of  the  infidel-socialistic  class,  met 
disappointment  in  America.  Starting  out  to  try  the  one 
article  of  his  faith — Death  ends  all — he  providentially 
drifted  into  a  Christian  mission,  and  there  found  not 
only  faith  for  temporal  but  for  eternal  life.  Work  was 
found  for  him  and  he  soon  sent  for  his  family.  The 
wife  could  only  read  by  the  language  of  life.  What  she 
read  astonished  her.  God,  whom  her  husband  formerly 
reviled,  he  now  revered.  The  marvelous  transforma- 
tion of  his  life  in  the  home  made  her,  too,  a  Christian. 

"  Tony,"  called  an  Italian  mother,  "  don't  you  go 
near  that  mission  again!  It's  forbid."  "  But,"  argued 
Tony,  "  if  you  knowed  her  you'd  let  me.  She  don't  call 
a  fellow  a  '  dago,*  and  you  should  hear  her  pray.  She 
talks  to  God  like  she  know'd  'im." 

The  contents  of  the  "  melting-pot "  have  not  yet 
reached  the  all-fusing  point.  New  ingredients  and 
new  re-agents  are  constantly  added,  delaying  and 
changing  the  processes  of  reduction  and  transforma- 
tion. But  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  it  is  going 
on,  and  that  no  ingredient  is  so  stubborn  that  it  cannot 
be  reduced  by  contact  with  its  currents. 


TESTING  THE  PRODUCT  93 

Recently  there  died  in  the  Buffalo  almshouse  Old 
Joe,  "  the  queen  of  Canal  Street,"  one  of  the  toughest 
characters  of  that  section  when  it  was  one  of  the  most 
dangerous  slums  in  America.  At  least  thirty  years  of 
her  life  Old  Joe  had  spent  in  the  penitentiary.  For 
Army  and  Volunteer  workers  her  antipathy  was  so 
great  that  she  would  snarl  and  spit  at  them  through 
the  bars  like  an  infuriated  beast. 

But  Captain  Haag  believed  that  there  was  no  soul 
so  dead  to  love  and  God  but  that  a  way  could  be  found 
to  pierce  the  hard  exterior.  She  learned  that  Old  Joe 
was  very  fond  of  red  peppers  and  she  brought  her  some 
of  the  brightest  and  hottest  to  be  found  in  the  market. 
They  proved  the  key  to  open  the  sealed  door  to  the 
dark  heart. 

When  again  at  liberty,  Joe  visited  the  Volunteer 
rescue  home,  stayed  two  wrecks  within  its  shelter,  and 
was  converted.  The  last  four  years  of  her  seventy- 
six  were  years  of  complete  change  in  her  life,  and  she 
died  in  full  confidence  of  sins  forgiven. 

Canal  Street  is  no  more;  Old  Joe  is  no  more;  but 
God,  through  prison-workers,  continues  to  save  unto 
the  uttermost. 

"  The  Queen  wishes  to  know  did  the  children  all  get 
hom.e  safely."  Thus  read  a  telegram  Queen  Victoria 
ordered  sent  to  the  mayor  of  a  large  city  where  several 
thousand  boys  and  girls  had  sung  in  welcome  of  the 
royal  visitor.  If  only  America's  children  "  get  home 
safely,"  all  will  have  been  gloriously  well  with  the 
processes  of  the  melting-pot. 


94       AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

god's  ultimate 

God's  purpose  for  America  is  a  world  purpose.  He 
cannot  make  America  a  better  nation  without  making 
the  world  a  better  world.  Patriotic  ideas  and  accom- 
plishments are  uplifts  to  world  ideals.  The  constrain- 
ing love  of  Christ,  the  commission  of  the  Gospel,  make 
it  impossible  for  the  Christian  to  withhold  the  bless- 
ings of  God. 

"For  mankind  are  one  in  spirit,  and  an  instinct  bears  along, 
Round  the  earth's  electric  circle,  the  swift  flash  of  right  or  wrong; 
Whether  conscious  or  unconscious,  yet  Humanity's  vast  frame 
Through  its  ocean-sundered  fibers  feels  the  gush  of  joy  or  shame,— 
In  the  gain  or  loss  of  one  race  all  the  rest  have  equal  claim." 

The  massing  here  of  representatives  of  the  world 
races  suggests  that  all  may  have  something  to  supply 
and  something  to  surrender  for  the  making  of  an  ideal 
people.  The  great  ethnic  problem  before  America  is 
how,  while  advancing  the  fusion  of  her  heterogeneous 
immigration,  to  maintain  the  ideal  national  homogene- 
ity necessary  to  a  great  nation  and  a  great  destiny. 
To  take  from  every  race  and  man  his  best  and  to  culti- 
vate in  one  another  God's  best,  is,  in  the  final  analysis, 
to  produce  the  best  human. 

The  physical  and  intellectual  characteristics  of  the 
American  type  are  already  clearly  distinguished. 
Steiner  declares  the  miracle  which  America  works  upon 
the  Bohemian  to  be  "  more  remarkable  than  any  other 
of  our  national  achievements;  the  dominant  look,  so 
characteristic  in  Prague,  is  nearly  gone;  the  surliness 


TESTING  THE  PRODUCT  95 

and  unfriendliness  have  disappeared  and  the  young 
Bohemian,  American-born,  is  as  frank  and  open  as  his 
neighbor  of  Anglo-Saxon  parentage." 

In  ten  years  Armenians  are  seen  to  lose  their  pecu- 
liar sharpness  of  features  and  to  take  the  American  im- 
print. Even  in  his  humor,  the  Negro  is  English  in 
Jamaica  and  Yankee  in  the  United  States. 

The  intent  of  the  Great  Alchemist  concerning  the 
race  fusion  to  be  finally  attained  in  His  "  melting-pot  " 
is  unknown.  Some  infer  that  God  proposes  to  restore 
here  the  one  race  from  which  all  nations  sprang.  There 
are,  however,  conflicting  opinions  on  the  results  of  race 
crossing :  some  affirm  that  only  pure  races  are  strong, 
while  others  hold  the  opposite  view  and  still  others 
claim  that  disaster  lies  beyond  certain  degrees  of  ad- 
mixture. 

Dispersed  among  the  nations,  the  Jews  have  kept 
their  racial  integrity.  From  every  country  they  come 
to  America  as  Jews.  Shall  this  monumental  race  be- 
come altogether  Americans  here? 

Inhabitants  of  the  most  widely  separated  parts  of 
the  United  States  are  said  to  show  less  difference  in 
language,  customs  and  feelings  than  those  of  con- 
tiguous counties  and  provinces  of  European  states 
which  have  had  diverse  histories.  Like  experiences, 
thoughts,  ideals,  aspirations,  produce  like  people,  even 
in  physical  appearance. 

May  it  not  be  that  the  unity  of  the  final  American 
stock  shall  be  born  of  kinship  in  the  spirit  more  than  of 
kinship  in  the  flesh?  Surely  upon  faces  of  Chris- 
tians of  every  racial  mold, — Indian,  Negro,  Chinese 


96       AMERICA,  GOD'S  MELTING-POT 

and  Anglo-Saxon, — the  imprint  of  the  stamp  of  Christ 
is  readily  recognized. 

Whatever  be  the  final  outcome,  we  know  that  the 
Revelator  heard  this  new  song: 

"  Thou  art  worthy  to  take  the  book,  and  to  open  the 
seals  thereof :  for  Thou  wast  slain  and  hast  redeemed  us 
to  God  by  Thy  blood  out  of  every  kindred  and  tongue 
and  people  and  nation." 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMKICA 


C  "Prof.  Edward  A.  Steiner's  book  is  an  epic 
of  present  day  immigration  and  is  indeed  a 
revelation  that  should  set  America  thinking. 
It  is  crammed  with  information  which  may  be 
called  vital  statistics,  gained  only  by  first  hand 
association  with  the  actual  people  concerned. 

d.  "Prof.  Steiner  is  himself  an  immigrant 
though  educated  in  the  Universities  of  Ger- 
many. Nearly  ever/  year  he  has  been  passing 
and  repassing  over  the  same  trail  in  order  to 
understand  thoroughly  the  subject  which  has 
absorbed  his  constant  thought  and  burned 
itself  into  his  very  being. 

^  "The  author  has  not  only  taken  such  pains 
to  get  the  actual  facts — he  has  taken  similar 
pains  with  their  presentation  to  arrest  the 
sympathetic  attention  of  men  and  women  who 
read.  His  alert  and  vivid  imagination  and 
uncommonly  keen  sense  for  literary  effect  make 
story  and  statement  concrete,  picturesque  and 
telling. 

C  "It  is  just  such  a  book  as  was  needed.  It 
could  not  be  more  timely.  Impassioned  as 
one  who  undertakes  to  tell  about  it  may  be,  at 
the  best,  his  representations  will  still  be  but 
the  **  rhetoric  of  understatement ^ 

From  a  lengthy  reviezv  in 
the  Chicago  Evening  Post, 


ON  THE  TRAIL  OF  THE 

Immigrant 

Illustrated^  Cloth  $ijo  net 


EDWARD  A.  STEINER'S 
Studies    of    Immigration 

The  Broken   Wall 

Stories  of  the  Mingling  Folk.     Illus- 
trated   net  $1 .00 

"A  big  heart  and  a  sense  of  humor  go  a  long  way  toward 
making  a  good  book.  Dr.  Edward  A.  Steiner  has  both  these 
qualifications  and  a  knowledge  of  immigrant's  traits  and 
c  haracter. ' ' — Outlook, 

Against  the  Current 

Simple  Chapters  from  a  Complex  Life. 
i2mo,  cloth,  ., net  $1.25 

"As  frank  a  bit  of  autobiography  as  has  been  published 
for  many  a  year.  The  author  has  for  a  long  time  made  a 
close  study  of  the  problems  of  immigration,  and  makes  a 
strong  appeal  to  the  reader."— TA*  Living  A gt. 

The  Immigrant  Tide — 
Its  Ebb  and  Flow 

Illustrated,  8vo,  cloth, net  $1.50 

"May  justly  be  called  an  epic  of  present  day  immigra- 
tion, and  is  a  revelation  that  should  set  our  country 
thinking." — Los  AngeUt  Times. 

On  the   Trail  of  the  Immigrant 

7th  Edition.    Illustrated,  l2mo,  cloth, 

net  $1.50 

"Deals  with  the  character,  temperaments,  racial  traits, 
aspirations  and  capabilities  of  the  immigrant  himselfl  Can- 
not fail  to  afford  excellent  material  for  the  use  of  students 
of  immigrant  problems." — Outlook. 


TJie  Mediator 

A  Tale  of  the  Old  World  and  the  New. 
Illustrated,  i2mo,  cloth net  $1.25 

"A  graphic  story,  splendidly  told."— Robert  Watchorn, 
Former  Commissioner  o/ Immigration. 

Tolstoy^  the  Man  and  His  Message 

A  Biographical  Interpretation 

Revised  and  enlarged.     Illustrated,    i2mo, 

cloth, net  $1.50 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


